A House leader stated on Thursday that Vice President Sara Duterte should not bear the blame and resign from her position as education secretary following the release of the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results, which positioned the Philippines as the sixth lowest among 81 countries.
Roman Romulo, the Chairperson of the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture, highlighted that the 2022 PISA test, demonstrating marginal improvement from the Philippines’ 2018 scores when it recorded the lowest scores, was administered only in the second quarter of 2022.
“The reforms being introduced under the [new] Matatag [basic education] curriculum and the proposed Catch Up Fridays were not yet proposed nor implemented at the time the 2022 PISA test was taken,” Romulo said.
“Moving forward, DepEd (Department of Education) should implement these reforms at the earliest possible time,” Romulo added.
In August, under Vice President Duterte’s leadership, the DepEd introduced the Matatag curriculum. This curriculum aims to streamline the number of subjects, placing a stronger emphasis on the development of foundational skills, including literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills, for Kinder to Grade 3 learners.
Duterte noted that the new curriculum, Matatag, will incorporate “peace competencies,” emphasizing the promotion of non-violent actions and the cultivation of conflict-resolution skills in learners.
VP Sara Duterte’s resignation will not address poor PISA results – Romulo
Additionally, the DepEd announced last month the implementation of the Catch Up Fridays program starting January 12, 2024, aimed at assisting students in enhancing their reading and comprehension skills.
As part of the Catch Up Fridays program, all learners from kindergarten to Grade 12 will be allocated time to engage in reading activities, including books, articles, and other relevant materials based on their interests. They will also be assigned tasks such as writing books, essays, and reviews or analyses of the materials they read.
House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of the ACT Teachers party-list emphasized that the PISA results highlight the critical need for a genuine educator to lead the DepEd.
“The Philippines’ performance in reading, mathematics and science was ‘about the same’ as in 2018, when it ranked lowest in those subjects among 79 participating countries. This means that the programs implemented by the DepEd from then until now are ineffective and have not addressed the learning crisis,” said Castro.
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