Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, November 26) — The Education Department said it’s too early to tell whether the quality of education deteriorated further this year.
Aside from the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, recent calamities have also disrupted learning with some schools suspending classes for weeks.
“It is perhaps too early after two months to decide or say that quality of education has declined because there are already criticisms even before the pandemic, we have very serious challenges in education,” Education chief Leonor Briones said on Thursday.
Briones said education stakeholders have had to endure calamities in the past and have learned to cope.
Affected schools, Briones explained, could adjust their calendar, hold weekend classes, or further reduce requirements.
The DepEd believes students and teachers will suffer more if an academic freeze is imposed.
Calls for an academic freeze or the cancellation of the school year resurfaced following the series of typhoons in the past month.
“It happens all the time. But this time of course it is much more complex but it would not necessarily call for total closure. Other countries are coping and we have the capacity also to cope,” Briones said.
PISA 2022 preps underway
Education officials say they are now implementing measures to help Filipino learners fare better in the next round of Programme for International Student Assessment scheduled in 2022.
This includes training for teachers and school leaders as well as provision of learning materials and practice tests to students.
While confident students could do better in the next assessment, DepEd said they have a long way to go.
Various issues like majority of students having no access to the internet also factor in, according to education officials.
“When we talk about literacy in emerging international norms such as PISA, hindi na ito yung [this isn’t about the] ability to read and write and perform various comprehension activities but it involves higher order thinking skills as well as facility to navigate these materials across a digital platform,” DepEd undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan explained.
The DepEd believes PISA 2022 results could show whether or not efforts to improve the quality of education are working.
In 2018, the Philippines joined PISA for the first time. Results showed Filipino students fared “worst” among 79 countries in reading literacy and second lowest in both mathematical and scientific literacy.
Briones said the dismal performance should serve as a wake up call to improve the education system.
