The Department of Education (DepEd) announced on Friday, April 11, that it has officially completed the country’s participation in the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

In a statement, DepEd underscored its commitment to accountability and continuous improvement in global education standards as the Philippines' 2025 PISA participation was completed.

“By March 2025, the first set of Filipino learners took the computer-based PISA,” DepEd said. “The conduct of the exam will conclude in the second week of April,” it added.

The completion of the country’s participation in this year’s PISA, DepEd said, marks a significant step in assessing the readiness of Filipino learners and aligning the national education system with international benchmarks.

DepEd is awaiting the results, which are expected in September 2026 and will serve as “another benchmark for future programs aimed at elevating learning outcomes.”

PISA journey

DepEd said that since assuming office in July 2024, Education Secretary Sonny Angara has prioritized improving learning outcomes.

“Part of his improvement plan is the country’s participation in international large-scale assessments (ILSAs),” DepEd said. “This is the marching order of President Bongbong Marcos, which Sec. Angara and members of the Executive Committee (Execom) have operationalized,” it added.

DepEd noted that the first in this series of ILSAs is PISA.

As the country concludes its participation in PISA this year, DepEd wanted to share its activities and efforts to date with the public.

Timeline for PISA 2025 preparations

DepEd said that in October 2024, Angara convened the Execom to account for the country’s universe of test-takers.

“He mapped the vision for the country’s 2025 participation and what the Department could do differently,” DepEd said. “This included learning from the country’s experience during the 2022 edition, particularly regarding logistical gaps,” it added.

By November 2024, DepEd said it “devised an internal school audit system” to check for school readiness, teacher capacity, academic preparedness, and community support.

“DepEd was then working with a universe of about 4 million 15-year-old learners—the PISA’s target demographic for the 2025 edition,” the agency shared.

In December 2024, DepEd said an authorized contractor of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the organizer of PISA, released the list of 208 Philippine schools that would participate in PISA.

“In its selection, the contractor used a sampling method to ensure representation of school types (public, private, and science high schools), sizes, and geographic locations,” DepEd said.

As 2025 opened, DepEd noted that the Execom had a “functional appraisal” of the participating schools’ readiness.

Execom members acted as regional focal persons to bolster varying degrees of preparedness, DepEd said.

As part of the preparation, DepEd said schools with logistical gaps in testing centers, laptops, and Internet access were “given maintenance and augmentation funds.”

Moreover, DepEd noted that teachers’ content mastery was assessed through Khan Academy Philippines and Frontlearners, DepEd’s edtech partners.

In February 2025, DepEd said the OECD’s contractor released the list of participating 15-year-old learners.

“The learner-participants were selected randomly in each of the participating schools,” DepEd explained. “Their aim is to reflect the full population of 15-year-olds in each participating country,” the agency added.

DepEd noted that participating learners were given a series of familiarization activities that covered computer literacy, basic quantitative skills, and critical thinking.

A learning experience

Recognizing the different viewpoints regarding the country’s participation in ILSAs, Angara underscored DepEd’s commitment to meticulous preparation.

Angara viewed the country’s participation in 2022 as a valuable learning experience, acknowledging that insufficient preparation led to public concerns.

“Our goal here is a more robust and equitable testing environment,” Angara said in one of the weekly Execom meetings. “We must learn from the gains of this exercise and scale it for future initiatives,” he added.

The Philippines, through DepEd, first took part in PISA in 2018, aiming to assess and enhance the quality of basic education in the Philippines while also comparing its education system to global standards.

The results from the 2018 PISA revealed that the Philippines scored below the average of participating OECD countries in mathematics, science, and reading.

In 2022, the Philippines participated again in PISA.

The results showed that Filipino students continued to perform poorly, especially in creative thinking, with scores notably lower than the OECD average.