Former Senate Committee on Basic Education Chairperson Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian expressed alarm on Thursday over the growing number of students struggling with reading comprehension.

Gatchalian said in an exclusive interview on DZRH’s Dos Por Dos that data showed some students are passing their grade level or even graduating from senior high school despite having poor reading comprehension.

He cited findings from the World Bank on "Learning Poverty," which reveal that nearly 90% of Filipino children can read text but do not understand what they are reading, which highlights a serious gap between academic progression and actual learning.

Additionally, the senator shared that based on his conversations with many young people, particularly from the Gen Z generation, most of them no longer read printed newspapers. Instead, they rely heavily on social media platforms, especially TikTok and Facebook, as their main sources of news.

He expressed concern that many of these youths are unable to distinguish between credible news and fake information. As long as something appears to look like news or is shared by someone they know, they tend to believe it without verifying its accuracy, which might contribute to the widespread circulation of fake or inaccurate news that may easily mislead the public.