Being part of the largest bureaucracy for the past 36 years, a senior official of the Department of Education (DepEd) maintained that the quality of education in the country is far from “plummeting” because of the continued efforts initiated by the government.

DepEd Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction Diosdado San Antonio, in a televised public briefing on May 20, said people have “different perception” on the quality of education in the country.

“Ako po bilang isang beteranong taga-DepEd, going 36 years na po ako ngayong taon, naniniwala po ako na hindi naman ganoon iyong riyalidad sa mga nangyayari (As a veteran of DepEd, I have been here for 36 years this year, I believe that is not the reality of what is happening),” San Antonio said.

San Antonio said that in the previous years, there have been many efforts initiated by the government to uplift the quality of education - especially at the basic education level.

“Nakita ko po kung ano ang ginagawa ng pamahalaan ngayon para i-modernize ang ating mga school facilities, bigyang-pansin iyong mga dagdag na gagawin para iyon pong education technology ay ma-integrate sa ating mga ginagawa (I have seen what the government is doing now to modernize our school facilities, it is paying attention to education technology so it can be integrated into what we are doing),” he added.

Under the leadership of Secretary Leonor Briones, San Antonio said that initiatives not just for the current school year are undertaken but also in the coming years. In particular, he noted the creation of the Education Futures Unit which aims to “strategically evaluate and integrate trends and advancements in learning and teaching processes” in anticipation of more challenging issues in education.

San Antonio was responding to observations on the country’s education system after Filipino learners have been getting low scores in international large-scale assessments.

Filipino students showed poor performance in 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 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries in 2018.

In the 2018 PISA, the Philippines’ score of 353 in mathematics, 357 in science, and 340 in reading were all below the average of participating countries.

Similarly, the result of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS) in 2019 also 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.

Filipino students also lagged behind other countries in the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) 2019 where fifth grade Filipino students who attained the minimum proficiency in reading, writing, and mathematics were much lower than Malaysia and Vietnam.

Despite these, San Antonio maintained that challenges faced by the education sector are being addressed.

“So, naniniwala po ako na kung iyon naman po ang perception ng iba, nirirespeto natin (So, I believe that if that is the perception of others, we respect it), he said.

But for someone who has been part of the agency for over three decades, San Antonio said there have been good developments in the education system.

“Bilang taga-DepEd po siyempre at naranasan ko iyong mga hirap o mga hamon nang pagiging teacher noong mga unang panahon ay para pong tingin ko mas maayos naman iyong mga nagagawa natin ngayon at naiu-offer sa ating mga mag-aaral (As a member of DepEd who also experienced the difficulties or challenges of being a teacher in the early days, I think we have been doing well in what we’re doing now and what we offer to our students),” he ended.