DepEd challenged by PH’s poor ranking in World Bank education report

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday said the World Bank report stating that many Filipino students “do not know what they should know” in school will be taken as a challenge to improve the Philippines’ quality of education.

DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan on Friday said the agency welcomes the World Bank report as it will further help them create more informed interventions.

“What we are assuring ang mga kababayan natin ay talagang kinilala natin itong suliranin at hamon ng kalidad ng edukasyon,” Malaluan said in an interview on ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.

(What we are assuring our countrymen is that we acknowledge these problems and challenges on the quality of our education.)

“Tinatanggap natin as a challenge itong resulta na medyo malayo tayo ngayon, nasa baba tayo kung titignan natin ang sukatan ng literacies from international standard,” he added.

(We accept as a challenge these results where we are at the bottom when we look at the literacies from the international standard.)

The World Bank report

In the World Bank report, poor learning results were observed among students in the country as 80 percent of students fell below minimum levels of proficiency expected.

This was based three assessments the Philippines joined— the Program for International Student Assessment in 2018, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in 2019, and the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics, also in 2019.

Even as he welcomed the World Bank report, Malaluan hoped that it still acknowledged the DepEd’s initiatives in addressing the issues.

“We are as much a partner in addressing the challenge on the quality of education and we hope they will also acknowledge the things that are already being done,” Malaluan said.

Quality of teaching

He cited the World Bank’s recommendation to improve the quality of teaching, which the DepEd is already addressing through its National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP).

The NEAP is in charge of “professional development program for all teachers, both in teaching and school leadership.”

“‘Yan ay pangunahin or centerpiece reform program natin, itong transformation of the National Educators Academy. So we also hope that the World Bank will be able to provide a fuller context and fairer discussion,” Malaluan said.

(That’s a primary or centerpiece reform program, this transformation of the National Educators Academy. So we also hope that the World Bank will be able to provide a fuller context and fairer discussion.)

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