While the Department of Education (DepEd) welcomed the report released by the World Bank, an official of the agency also expressed regret that the reform initiatives currently being undertaken to uplift the quality of education in the country were not acknowledged.
DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan, in an interview over ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo on Friday, July 2, said that as soon as Education Secretary Leonor Briones started her term in 2016, quality has long been identified as a challenge in basic education.
Given this, Malaluan said that DepEd has started to join international assessments to know “where we are” when it comes to world standards and also to assess the competencies of Filipino learners.
“Ang objective nito ay ipakita ang ating determinasyon na harapin itong hamon ng kalidad ng edukasyon at sukatin din ang kakayahan ng ating mga mag-aaral sa international standards ng mga assessments na ito (Our objective is to demonstrate our determination to address this challenge of education quality and also to measure the ability of our students based on the international standards of these assessments),” he said.
“It is in this context that we welcome the report of the World Bank,” Malaluan added, noting that DepEd is seriously taking into consideration the results of these assessments “to understand” the challenges and help the agency form interventions.
“Many of the findings of the World Bank, we already know based on the findings of our own analysis,” Malaluan said. “Nalulungkot kami na hindi binigyang puwang yung mga initiatives natin (We are sad that our initiatives were not recognized),” he added.
Based on the World Bank report, 80 percent of Filipino students showed poor learning results or below minimum levels of proficiency expected of them. The said report was based on the three international large-scale assessments the Philippines joined since 2016.
For the first time in 2018, the Philippines joined the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a computer-based test that measures the performance of 15-year-old students in math, science, and reading conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
However, Filipino students showed poor performance in the 2018 PISA wherein the Philippines’ score of 353 in mathematics, 357 in science, and 340 in reading were all below the average of participating countries.
In 2019, the Philippines also rejoined the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) after 16 years. The results showed that Grade 4 Filipino learners lag behind their counterparts from 57 countries with the lowest score of 297 in mathematics and 249 in science.
In the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) also 2019, Filipino students also lagged behind other countries. The results showed that fifth grade Filipino students - who attained the minimum proficiency in reading, writing, and mathematics - were placed much lower than Malaysia and Vietnam.
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