Angara wants PISA-like exams for students

Education Secretary Sonny Angara | File photo from the Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau

MANILA, Philippines —  Educators would need to develop examinations in schools that would match the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sonny Angara said on Friday.

“It is a challenge for us because our teaching is very structured. And we also teach in a certain form that doesn’t always encourage analysis and critical thinking,” Angara said, speaking partly in Filipino, in an episode of “Malacañang Insider.”

“For me, I think we need to have more test exams that are PISA-like because we’re simply not used to that,” he added.

READ: PISA results mirror PH education’s lost days, ‘grave crisis’

This aligns with what President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared in his third State of the Nation address where he stressed the need for more analytical thinkers, Angara said.

“We should zero on which grade levels it affects and make sure science education is very, very focused and targeted towards that type of exam,” he said.

To further improve the quality of education in the country, Angara said that, as the new chief of DepEd, he was aiming to foster a “culture of assessment and measurement.”

“I want to change the culture in a way because we want to have a culture of assessment and measurement. Meaning, our decisions are not based on what we think or what we feel, but really based on evidence. We measure our outcomes,” he said.

“So, when we test our teachers, when we rate them, I don’t mean necessarily more exams, but maybe more objective tools to measure our education outcomes,” he added.

READ: Poor PISA ranking a wake-up call – DepEd

He also emphasized the importance of integrating technology into the education system, which he said could help learners not only improve their test scores, but also solve “traditional problems” such as classroom gaps.

In 2022, PISA revealed that Filipino students were five to six years behind in mathematics, science, and reading compared to their 15-year-old counterparts from most of the participating countries.