Illiteracy among women and their lack of access to accurate information heighten this problem. Beginning at ABC Filipinos are literate. This is what many surveys reveal. Majority of the population can read and write a simple message in a language or dialect they use in daily communications. This skill is used as a basis for a people's simple literacy rate .
Recent figures suggest that there are no marked differences between men and women.
Another closely monitored indicator is functional literacy rate. This refers to the ability of an individual to read and write with comprehension and to make simple arithmetical calculations. Again, females don't appear to lag behind men in this skill, as reported in the latest national studies. However, illiteracy rate remains alarming in indigenous and marginalized communities. Jocelyn lives in a far-flung barangay in Agusan del Sur, a province in Mindanao.