A pilot run of the revised senior high school (SHS) curriculum will be launched in the 2025-2026 schoolyear, according to the Vice President and Education Secretary. This is aimed at making senior high school graduates more employable. This announcement comes on the heels of the public launching of the first-year report of the second Educational Commission (EDCOM) formed by Congress in 2020. 

The EDCOM 2 report is entitled, Miseducation: The Failed System of Philippine Education. This is in sharp contrast to the title of the EDCOM 1 report, Making Education Work: An Agenda for Reform.  

The variance between then and now reflects the serious ills plaguing the country’s educational system – a malady that was aggravated by the three-year-long regime of distance learning and home schooling brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Previously, a wave of public concern was generated by the announcement of the latest results of the Program for International Student Assessment  (PISA) that measures 15-year-old students' reading, mathematics, and science literacy. In mathematics, reading, and science, the Philippines was ranked as among the lowest performers among the 81 countries under the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

While the results were truly distressing, it must be pointed out that there was no significant deterioration in the Filipino students’ scores, despite the protracted Covid-19-induced school shutdown – one of the longest worldwide. Yet, no self-respecting country would complacently accept such dismal results. 

Expressing extreme dissatisfaction, Philippine Business for Education has warned that the apparent weakness in the basic education system will eventually translate into the weakness of the country’s workforce – “affecting the productivity and key source of our economic growth and competitiveness.” Hence, it called for effective response and unified efforts from all concerned sectors.

The EDCOM 2 report traces the root problem of low student aptitude: “The Philippines has one of the highest prevalence of under-5 stunting in the world, at 26.7 percent, compared to the global average of 22.3 percent. According to the DepEd, “at most 30 percent of learners fall back to become “wasted” and “severely wasted” despite months of interventions.” Aside from stunting, the severe deficit in the quality of teaching and learning is appalling: “The Human Capital Index estimates that a Filipino learner who starts school at four years old would have received 12.9 years of schooling by age 18; however, factoring in what children learn, this could be equivalent to only 7.5 years.”

EDCOM recommends sharper focus on: ensuring the availability of textbooks in public schools, the effectiveness of the assessment system, and the review of recent policy reforms in curriculum and instruction. Evidently, the DepEd has taken the initiative to address these concerns.

Finally, DepEd’s attention has also been called to address teachers’ concerns about repeated competencies “and are challenged by the spiral progression approach.” This signals the need for augmenting teachers’ capabilities and resources to ensure effective curriculum delivery.

Rebuilding a “failed system” requires synergized efforts between the executive and legislative branches of government – and the vigorous support of the citizenry.