In 2003, for every 100 Davaoeños 10 – 64 years old,
seventy-eight are functionally literate

According to the results of the 2003 survey, about 2.2 million or 77.8 percent are functionally literate out of the estimated 2.8 million Davaoeños aged 10 to 64 years old. As usual, females outnumbered males in terms of functional literacy rate. Having an estimated population of 1.3 million, 82.2 percent or about 1.1 million females aged 10 to 64 years old are functionally literate. While males have an estimated population of 1.4 million, only 73.7 percent of them have a high level of literacy.

       Table 1. Functional Literacy Rate of Population
                   10 - 64 years old by sex and age group,
                   Region XI 2003

Age Group	Population 10 - 64 years old			Functional Literacy Rate
	Both Sexes	Male	Female	Both Sexes	Male	Female
	(in thousands)			(in percent)
Davao Region	2,779	1,433	1,346	77.8	73.7	82.2
10 -14	496	250	246	66.3	58.5	74.2
15 - 19	433	212	221	84.4	79.5	89.1
20 - 24	333	173	160	85.9	83.1	88.9
25 - 29	315	165	150	82.1	79.5	85.0
30 - 39	504	272	232	80.9	78.3	83.8
40 - 49	396	202	193	79.3	73.5	85.5
50 - 59	225	114	111	68.6	69.7	67.5
60 - 64	77	44	32	62.3	57.5	68.8
Source: 2003 FLEMMS, National Statistics Office

Among the regions in Mindanao, Davao region ranked third in terms of functional literacy rate. It was topped by Northern Mindanao (83.7 percent), followed by CARAGA (81.0 percent). On the other hand, the top three regions with the lowest functional literacy rate were SOCCSKSARGEN (77.1 percent), Zamboanga Peninsula (74.8 percent) and ARMM (62.9 percent).

The 2003 functional literacy rate of Region XI is a bit lower than the 1994 rate (79.4 percent). It might be resulted to the failure of Government’s commitment to provide basic education at a lesser cost.

Among the top three reasons (figure 2) of Davaoeños aged 6 to 24 years old, for not attending school were employment/looking for work (26.3 percent), lack of personal interest (22.9 percent) and high cost of education (21.9 percent).

The 2003 results of the Functional Literacy, Education and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) was finally released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on December 16, 2005. It is the third in a series of surveys of functional literacy conducted by the NSO. The first round was conducted in 1989 and the second was in 1994. NSO defines functional literacy as a higher level of literacy, which includes not only reading and writing skills but also numerical and comprehension skills.