House Deputy Minority leader and Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT Teachers) Partylist Rep. France Castro lamented the dismal performance of Filipino students at the 2022 report of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
PISA measures 15-year-olds’ ability to use their reading, mathematics and science knowledge and skills to meet real-life challenges. The report was released on December 5.
The Philippines ranked 77th out of 81 countries globally in the student assessment conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for 15-year-old learners.
For the 2022 assessment, the Philippines ranked sixth to the last in reading and mathematics, while it ranked third to the last in science.
The country’s performance in math, reading, and science was “about the same” as in 2018 when it ranked lowest in those subjects among 79 participating countries. The average math score for 15-year-olds in the Philippines was 355 points, below the global average of 472 points.
“Sa resultang ito ng PISA mukhang mas mainam na maglagay na talaga ng kalihim ng DepEd na galing mismo sa sektor ng edukasyon at alan ang dapat gawin sa kagawaran upang tunay na matuto ang mga mag-aaral,” Castro said.
[With this PISA result, it seems that it would be better to put a DepEd secretary who comes from the education sector and knows what should be done in the department so that students can truly learn.]
Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary and Vice-President Sara Duterte vowed to fix basic education in six years, if given P100 billion more.
Castro noted that the result just showed that programs implemented by the Department of Education are “ineffective” and have “not addressed” the learning crisis.
“Mahirap na parang may part-time na kalihim lang sa DepEd at mas inaatupag ang pagmamanman sa mga guro at estudyante at maging hadlang sa makatarungang kapayapaan,” she added.
[It is difficult if there is only a part-time secretary in DepEd and more work is being done to monitor teachers and students and become an obstacle to just peace.]
Castro and the younger Duterte have been in crosshairs since the latter spoke out and red-tagged the group of Castro. This further escalated when Castro’s Makabayan bloc exposed the quick disbursement of the P125 million confidential and intelligence funds of the latter. This sparked controversy and an outcry among the people and ultimately led to the House of Representatives (HOR) removing the CIF of Duterte in both the DepEd and the Office of the Vice President amounting to P650 million.
“The PISA results also show that the militaristic and ‘do as I say without questions asked-style’ in the DepEd now is detrimental to the learning of students,” she added.
Push for higher budget for education
Castro also attributed the low performance of the Filipino students to the inadequate annual education budget.
“It also highlights the dire need to increase the budget of the education system of the country to at least 6% of our gross domestic product, with a thrust for building more classrooms, hiring more teachers and increasing their salaries as well as adopting a curriculum that would make learning easier for students and more attuned to the Philippine situation,” Castro said.
Even the Senate of the Philippines recognized that the education budget falls below the internationally agreed standard.
In its November 2023 budget note, it said “The Philippines is allocating 3.7 percent of its GDP (based on the projected 2024 GDP) to the education sector. This falls short of the 2021 Paris Declaration that reiterated the global commitments to allocating at least 4 percent to 6 percent of GDP and 15 percent to 20 percent of public expenditure to education. Moreover, this follows years of grossly insufficient investment and a low initial foundation.”
Research group IBON also panned the minimal increase in the proposed basic education budget for 2024 and tertiary education will suffer budget cuts.
Push for national language as MOI
Castro also pointed out the “language barrier” as a reason why Filipino students lag in the said fields.
“Countries who usually take the top tier of these assessments are those whose main medium of instruction is their national language, that is why learning is well facilitated, and they perform better in the tests which were conducted in their own language,” the lawmaker stressed.
Castro also pushed for Mother-Tongue-Based Multilingual Education and urged DepEd to address the lack of support and effort to have learning materials in local languages and the national language.
The PISA is conducted every three years.
