Duterte welcomes World Bank apology, expects more accurate education report

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has welcomed the World Bank’s apology over the early publication of its assessment on the sorry state of Philippine education, expressing hope the financial institution would soon publish a “more accurate” report.

“I would not want to begrudge the World Bank. These international bodies working on the problems of the world should be very careful about their statistics. It is not good to commit a wrong internationally. But we welcome their apology,” Duterte said in his taped weekly briefing that aired Monday night.

The president said the Department of Education (DepEd) would do what it could to correct misconceptions about Filipino students’ performance.

“I commend [DepEd] Secretary Leonor Briones for calling out the World Bank on this issue. I hope a more accurate report based on the latest data will be made,” Duterte said.

The World Bank apologized last week for publishing its report indicating the poor performance of Filipino students even before the DepEd had the chance to provide its inputs.

Briones demanded the World Bank to publicly apologize over the report, which she said “insulted” and “shamed” the Philippines.

In the report, Filipino students showed poor performance, with 80 percent of them falling below the minimum levels of proficiency expected.

The report was based on three assessments the Philippines previously 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.

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