Crisis

THE DEPARTMENT of Education (DepEd) made a big fuss about World Bank’s failure to discuss with them first the results of its study on the Philippine education system, but has not expressed equal alarm at the poor performance of Filipino students—as if this is completely baseless.

In contrast, Vice President Leni Robredo acknowledged that Philippine education is in fact in crisis, and hoped that her voice can further amplify the sector’s call for urgent and ample support from the government.

Instead of throwing tantrums, DepEd should consider VP Leni’s call for actions and solutions, which echo the education sector’s long-standing demand. Her remarks about the state of education are well-grounded. She is not ashamed to admit that there is a crisis in the Philippine education system, and is seeking out solutions while actively participating in addressing the gaps in DepEd’s programs.

These should be welcomed and engaged, not snapped at by the Chief of Staff of DepEd. DepEd should learn to better appreciate criticisms as crucial in bettering the quality of education, and should use these as starting points in demanding better support from the national government.

In fact, the national government should approach the World Bank report in the same way — such that, DepEd should use the result as am impetus to identify the weaknesses of Philippine education at present and figure out how to address these; instead of outrightly rejecting the results and focusing on breached protocols that do nothing to improve education quality and access in the country.

World Bank indeed apologized but it only conceded to the lapse in protocol, not to the wrongfulness of their data. Perhaps with the World Bank’s apology and the government’s egos appeased, we can finally start rooting the problems in education that has led to consistently poor student performance in various tests.

The crisis in education existed even before the pandemic but exponentially worsened when the health and economic crises hit last year. Education largely suffered through the years due to poor government support and because of programs and policies that are not grounded on and therefore unresponsive to the needs of the country.

The next few weeks before classes resume, DepEd should take a long, hard look at its programs and policies, identify its weaknesses, and aggressively address them.

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