Truth hurts

By Joshua Corcuera

Recently, the World Bank published a report exposing the poor, lamentable state of the Philippine education system. In that report, Filipino students had low scores in assessment tests on math and science. Another major finding is that “more than 80% of Filipino children do not know what they should know” in school. Otherwise stated, a vast majority of Filipino students were not able to meet the expected learning outcomes from their grade level.

The findings sparked outrage among government officials, especially the Education Secretary who called for an apology from the World Bank. Her call was echoed by the Finance Secretary who, according to news reports, wrote a letter to the World Bank group president expressing his displeasure on the institution’s “lack of professionalism when it failed to follow the standard procedure of consulting DepEd officials about its findings before the report’s publication.”

As of writing, the World Bank has apologized and took down a synthesis of the report from their website. But despite this, the truth remains — the Philippine education system is in a deep crisis.

Aside from the World Bank report, there are several reliable sources revealing the poor state of Philippine education. These sources include, but not limited to, the following: the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In the 2018 PISA, for instance, the Philippines was second to the last, out of 77 participating countries, in terms of average score in math, science, and reading.

Instead of denying the truth, we must acknowledge such facts so that we would not be dead last in the years to come — so that we would improve constantly, however slow it may be. But what should we improve exactly?

There are a lot of possible things to improve within our education system. For instance, improving access to educational environments that are conducive to learning. We have to admit that there are a lot of students who find it difficult to attend school up to this day — especially in rural areas where infrastructure tends to be in need of repair. And there are schools that admit an enormous number of students, so enormous that it is no longer conducive to learning. Case in point: classrooms where pupils struggle to find a seat. Although we do not have face-to-face classes as of writing, we would certainly return to classrooms in the near future — hopefully. This is why we should constantly find ways to promote a school environment that is good for studying.

Another is that educators, especially in lower year levels, have to be more strict and more attentive on the progress of pupils. There are pupils in the second grade, for instance, who still struggle with counting — how much more when doing mathematical operations? It is important for us to devote more time and effort to students who struggle, especially those in the first few years of school since these years serve as their building blocks in the years to come.

Altogether, we must accept the truth that our education system has a lot to improve — marami pang kakaining bigas. To solve this problem, we must acknowledge that such a problem exists. It may be a bitter pill to swallow, but it would do us good in the future.