Vice President Leni Robredo’s call for the Philippine government to declare an “education crisis” did not sit well with Education Secretary Leonor Briones.
“I don’t know who should judge whether we have a crisis in education or not, or kung sabihin na we have a crisis in education saan nanggaling ang crisis in education after 123 years? After 47 secretaries of Education, after seven secretaries of Education who refused to participate in the international assessment?,” Briones said in a meeting with President Duterte on Monday night, July 12.
Robredo on Sunday, July 11 said that the Duterte government must declare an “education crisis” after the World Bank apologized to the Philippines for the “inadvertent release” of its education report that said the country’s education system is lagging.
Related story: https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/11/robredo-says-ph-must-deal-with-education-crisis/
“The department has been in existent legally for 123 years. Out of 123 years, your administration is only on its fifth year so it is not perhaps correct or wise or appropriate to lay all the problems of education at the door of your administration,” Briones pointed out.
She said the Department of Education (DepEd) under Duterte administration joined the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2018.
“We joined, your administration, Deped joined PISA in 2018 after 18 years we had not joined this international assessment before, so it’s like as if we are looking at the mirror of education relative to the worldwide situation after 18 years,” she said.
“I am the seventh Secretary of Education and I am the only one who made such a decision that we will join this comparison,” she noted.
The PISA was used by the World Bank as its basis to assess the Philippines’ education system. The report released by the World Bank said that more than 80 percent of Filipino learners “do not know what they should know.”
Related story: https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/05/briones-world-bank-inadvertently-inflicts-harm-on-deped-ph-govt-by-releasing-outdated-report/
Briones demanded an apology from the World Bank for its unfair report.
Related story: https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/08/world-bank-philippines-issues-an-apology-for-inadvertent-release-of-education-report/
“We are very happy that through the intercession of Secretary finance nag-issue ng apology (they issued an apology). It is not the easiest thing in the world to make such a fearsome, powerful, ultra-rich, perhaps the richest financing institution na mag-applogize (to apologize) but it did apologize,” Briones said.