Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, December 6) — Fifteen-year-old students from the National Capital Region, Calabarzon, and the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) got higher score marks in reading comprehension, mathematics and science, accordingt to the Department of Education (DepEd).
“NCR, CAR, and Region 4A have the largest shares of students who have reached the minimum level of proficiency in reading, science, and math,” DepEd Undersecretary for Curriculum and Teaching Gina Gonong said during the DepEd’s Forum on PISA 2022.
The agency explained that the Philippines had an average score of 355 which is at Level 1b, or the second to the lowest proficiency level known as Level 1c. The PISA’s minimum level requirement is at Level 2.
“We’ll see the Philippines as 76th out of 81 countries in mathematics,” Gonong said. “Five education systems are below our average.”
“There were students that were able to achieve the minimum proficiency,” she added. “There is 16% in mathematics, 24% in reading, 23% in science.”
Citing the PISA 2022 report, Gonong said about 1% of the students from NCR reached Level 5 proficiency in math, while almost two in every five students in CAR achieved at least the minimum proficiency level.
On the other hand, she said Regions 10 and 9 had the lowest level average score in math, while Region 10’s average score in reading was also low.
READ: PH still among countries with lowest proficiency in reading, mathematics, and science
Challenges: Socio-economic status, remote setup, belongingness
The undersecretary said that 15-year-old female students outperformed males across the Philippines in terms of proficiency in reading comprehension, math, and science.
She added that there is a huge difference in the scores of students who are socioeconomically advantaged, saying they have scored higher than those who are disadvantaged.
Students attending private schools also scored higher than those in public, she added.
“During the remote learning, students encountered challenges … 42% said that they have problems with motivating themselves to do schoolworks, while 41% said they have problems with understanding their school assignments,” Gonong noted.
“Compared to 2018, students’ sense of belonging at school declined…70% reported that they were not satisfied with their lives,” she cited.
Food security and budget
The DepEd and also said key experts raised some issues on the food security of students attending public schools and the department’s allocated budget for 2024.
“Twelve percent of our students reported that they came to school without eating every day or almost every day,” Gonong said.
“So pag gutom ang bata, mababa ang performance sa math,” she added.
[Translation: So when the children are starving, their school performance is affected.]
DepEd Assistant Secretary Dexter Galban said they are preparing for the expansion of the school-based feeding program which will commence in the 2024-2025 school year.
He also said they will focus on milk supplementation in the early part of 2024 to extend it to about 164 days.
\”This is also one of our ways to address absenteeism so that we can provide them incentives to go to school and concentrate kasi ang hirap mag-focus kung gutom ‘yung tiyan,\” Galban added.
Meanwhile, Senator Win Gatchalian, who also spoke in the same forum, said the DepEd’s program budget for learning recovery is now close to about ₱2.9 billion.
He added that they need to source out around ₱7 billion budget to “fully intensify the learning recovery.”
READ: Sara Duterte asks for ‘collective support’ from teachers, parents to address education concerns
