Angara to prioritize improving student global competencie.

Metro Manila, Philippines – The incoming education chief said he aims to improve the global competencies of students in the wake of a dismal performance in a creative thinking assessment test.

In an interview after the announcement of his appointment, Senator Sonny Angara said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. told him to work on improving Filipino student performance in the latest Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

The Philippines was at the bottom two of PISA’s creative thinking test in 2022. The country also scored poorly in mathematics, science, and reading comprehension.

“‘Yan isa sa magiging priority natin. Pati yung pag-improve ng curriculum at saka ‘yung along with the improvements and streamlining of the curriculum. ‘Yung trying to get, trying to achieve better results in the PISA examinations,” Angara said.

(Translation: That will be one of our priorities. As well as improving and streamlining the curriculum. We’ll try to achieve better results in the PISA examinations.)

Angara is also open to continue the Matatag curriculum initiated by Vice President Sara Duterte, which will be carried out for Grades 1, 4, and 7 in school year (SY) 2024-2025.

Angara, a key figure in crafting the K-12 curriculum, also welcomes reviews on the program.

“So ‘yung K-12, we’ll follow whatever policy direction is set by Congress as the highest policy-setting body,” he said.

(Translation: For K-12, we’ll follow whatever policy direction is set by Congress as the highest policy-setting body.)

Curriculum change not enough

In an interview with NewsWatch Plus, education expert and University of the Philippines Professor Lizamarie Olegario said there’s more to curriculum change in achieving quality education.

“Since 1918, we’ve been changing curriculum but we have always failed. Based on studies, our reforms do not change the quality of education,” she said.

Olegario noted the need to empower teachers to improve the quality of teaching.

Angara said he will continue the move to ease teacher workload by doing away with non-related teaching tasks.

“I think we want to keep pursuing that direction. Magandang direction ‘yan para makapag-concentrate ang ating mga teachers at ‘yung quality of education will be enhanced,” he said.

(Translation: I think we want to keep pursuing that direction. It’s a good direction so our teachers could concentrate more and the quality of education will be enhanced.)