Light Rail Manila Corp. (LRMC), in partnership with Binhi English Literacy Foundation, Inc., on Thursday said it will sponsor 25 students from Baclaran Elementary School Central for the 2025-2026 school year to help improve their English literacy.
“We believe that a strong foundation in literacy is a building block for a brighter future,” LRMC Health, Safety, Environment, and Quality (HSEQ) Department Head Jason N. Magdaong said in a statement.
“By continuing our partnership with Binhi, we are not only helping these young students improve their reading skills but also empowering them to reach their full potential. This is our way of contributing to a more literate and prosperous nation,” he added.
In the 2024 edition of the English Proficiency Index (EPI) by international education company Education First (EF), the Philippines ranked 22nd out of 116 countries, two spots lower than a year earlier.
The country scored 570 out of 800, earning a “high” proficiency rating, which indicates Filipinos have sufficient English skills to give workplace presentations, understand TV shows, and read newspapers.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), in a separate report in July, revealed that more than one in five Filipinos aged 10 to 64 struggle to comprehend what they read despite being able to read, write, and compute.
The agency added that the basic literacy rate in the country stands at 93.1%, while the functional literacy rate is at 70.8%.
To equip the younger generation with strong foundations in English literacy, the LRMC noted that the partnership aims to help students aged five to eight in reading and comprehension.
Since its launch in School Year 2020-2021, the program has benefited over a hundred scholars.
The agency underscored that this initiative aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) 4: Quality Education, which aims to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
“LRMC’s support for the program is rooted in its dedication to the well-being of communities along the LRT-1 and its belief in the potential of Filipino children,” it said
LRMC is a joint venture of Ayala Corp., Metro Pacific Light Rail Corp., and Macquarie Infrastructure Holdings (Philippines) Pte Ltd. Metro Pacific Light Rail is a unit of Metro Pacific Investments Corp., one of three Philippine subsidiaries of Hong Kong’s First Pacific Co. Ltd., the others being PLDT Inc. and Philex Mining Corp.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., maintains an interest in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — Almira Louise S. Martinez
