‘Not a failure,’ Briones says of K-12 program amid low PISA PH results

MANILA, Philippines — Education Secretary Leonor Briones on Tuesday dismissed criticisms that the Philippines’ poor performance in the literacy assessment of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) proves the failure of the government’s K to 12 program.

According to the results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) by OECD, Filipinos fared worst among 79 countries in reading comprehension and second lowest in both mathematical and scientific literacy.

The assessment was administered to 600,000 15-year-old students from participating countries in a two-hour computer-based test.

Briones pointed out that students who underwent the K to 12 program, or senior high students, scored better than those in junior high school.

“Results show that those in senior high school performed so much better and significantly superior to those who are in junior high school of the same age,” she said in an interview over ABS CBN News Channel.

“We hope that the impact of senior high school will be better felt even as we strengthen Math, Science, and English,” she added.

Briones defended the program amid criticism from various groups, including ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, who said that the dismal performance shown by Filipino students in the literacy assessment of the OECD only proved the failure of the government’s K to 12 program.

The Department of Education (DepEd) official also brushed aside claims the K to 12 program was implemented too soon. If anything, she said it was implemented “too late.”

“Actually, it’s too late. We should’ve had senior high school decades ago. We were only one of three countries insisting on our 10-year basic education program,” Briones said.

To improve the country’s educational system and score better in the international assessment, Briones said the government must focus on changing the content of the curriculum and how the students are being taught.

“It’s really the content of the curriculum and the way we teach them (students) and the way we tell them what the world is, what it’s going to be when they leave school and join the workforce,” she said.

“We are reviewing the books, we have to rebuild the laboratories, we have to catch up with disasters which regularly wreak havoc on our facilities,” Briones added.