Recognizing the challenges that confront the country’s education system, the Department of Education (DepEd) underscored the importance of finding more ways to ensure that learning will be more effective especially on the basic education level.

“DepEd is aware that results of recent large scale assessments demand a more focused effort in finding more effective ways of making learning happen,” said Education Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction Diosdado San Antonio.

Given this, DepEd, under the leadership of Education Secretary Leonor Briones, launched the pivot to quality through “Sulong EduKalidad” in 2019 as a “comprehensive reform to enhance the quality of learning” in K-to-12 schools in the country.

Advocacy group Philippine for Business Education (PBEd) on Jan. 14 sounded the alarm on “learning crisis” in the country after the results of various international learning assessments ranked Filipino students among the lowest in the world in terms of science, mathematics, and reading competency. Filipino students also scored low in skills needed to thrive in the 21st century.

“Compounding matters are issues of malnutrition and stunting, protracted school closures and distance learning, poor teacher quality, and unequal access to learning materials that are all happening in the context of an economic recession and resource constraints brought about by the pandemic,” PBEd said.

PBEd noted that the learning crisis requires an “urgent, multi-sectoral response – with clear leadership and the spirit of bayanihan (community cooperation).” Thus, it called on the government to “take the lead” in building an education system that Filipino learners deserve.

The group also urged stakeholders and organizations in education to work with government to find and implement the most appropriate response to address the crisis in education.

“While this crisis warrants solutions, whose benefits will take years to realize, we believe that stemming the crisis requires that certain key measures be initiated at the earliest time possible,” PBEd said.

PBEd called on all Filipinos to “take this learning crisis seriously and demand that all leaders make education their No. 1 priority, for our present and future depend on a learned nation.”

A non-profit organization founded in 2006 by top CEOs in the country, PBEd is the business community’s response to the need for greater education and economic alignment. Its advocacies include teacher quality improvement and workforce development.