THE UNIVERSAL acceptance of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results in English, Mathematics, and Science is very much welcomed. These results confirmed that the Philippines falls far short of global standards.
We now have a well-defined problem which we can address and hopefully arrive at recommendations which when implemented will yield positive results.
Last Sunday (Jan. 5), PN published an excellent short article from Maria Bambi L. Brillanes which confirms that the Department of Education (DepEd) is doing much to address the problem. The areas of investigation are:
* K-12 review
* Improvement of learning facilities
* Improving teachers’ skills
* Engagement of all stakeholders for support and collaboration
All these areas are vital and I shall discuss them in turn.
1. K-12 Review.
I hope DepEd will not be too defensive about K-12. We are now in the eighth year of students enrolled in Grade 11 and I have not found support for the extra two years of schooling. Funding remains a problem. Our legislators need to explain why they passed the K-12 Act (RA 10533) if they are not prepared to make the necessary money available. For 2020, DepEd sought around P800 billion which presumably was based on what it considered it needed, but the budget approved by Congress falls short by around P200 billion.
2. Improvement of learning facilities.
Again, this is a budgetary issue. Congress should not pass laws if it is unwilling to provide the necessary funds.
3. Improving teachers’ skills.
I believe we should consider a radical change in teacher training. We can improve standards by recruiting potential teachers who are graduates of our most prestigious universities, They would then need to successfully complete an intensive one year training course before they are deemed to be qualified. The bar that currently exists for passing the licensure examinations is set too low.
4. Engagement of all stakeholders for support and collaboration.
Almost all of us are stakeholders. Students are underpinned by a family network, many of whom have observations about the efficacy (or lack of it) of the education our students receive. May stakeholders believe that there is too much rote learning in our education system, and that not enough emphasis is placed on genuine understanding.
For example, students are given lists of words which they need to learn to spell correctly. But what is the point if they do not know what the words mean?
I hope DepEd will make a serious attempt to seek the views of stakeholders. This needs an apparent change in corporate culture. Hitherto, stakeholders have suffered from DepEd’s ‘we know best attitude’. The PISA results show that DepEd needs the articulate collaboration that stakeholders can provide.
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The PISA results would not have come as a surprise to DepEd. Many years ago, the Philippines took part in international education performance comparisons mounted by the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). We did not do well. It is gratifying that DepEd decided in 2018 to rejoin the international comparison and have accepted the results without demur.
A sea change in our education standards is achievable. It will take a few years but I am optimistic that we shall achieve good results eventually./PN
