FIRST SAY:
The fact is that far more crime and child abuse has been committed by zealots in the name of God, Jesus, and Mohammed than has ever been committed in the name of Satan. Many people don’t like that statement, but few can argue with it.
—CARL SAGAN
It took the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) to confirm what we already know: that Filipino students aged 15 to 16 years old are lagging behind in mathematics, reading and science compared to other learners from other countries which are participating in this program.
What made this PISA confirmation different is that it is based on scientific data and analysis, with 7,193 Filipino students from 188 schools participating in the assessment, which involved two hour-long tests each devoted to one subject.
PISA 2022 holds its assessment every three years, and this is the second year that local students were assessed because Philippine participation in the program started in 2018.
Among the salient features of the study are the following:
—Average 2022 results were about the same as in 2018 in mathematics, reading and science.
—Over the most recent period (2018 to 2022), the gap between the highest-scoring students (10% with the highest scores) and the weakest students (10% with the lowest scores) narrowed in mathematics, while it did not change significantly in reading and science. In mathematics, low-achievers became stronger, while performance did not change significantly among high-achievers.
—Compared to 2018, the proportion of students scoring below a baseline level of proficiency (Level 2) did not change significantly in mathematics, reading and science,” it added.
The mean score for mathematics among OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries were 472 points, 476 in reading and, 485 in science. Filipino learners, meanwhile, garnered mean scores of 356 points in science, 347 in reading, and 355 in math.
Singapore scored significantly higher than all other countries in mathematics with 575 points, reading with 543 points and science with 561 points. Among other countries with high scores in Math are Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Macao, while Ireland, Estonia, Japan, Korea and Chinese Taipei also fared well in Science.
Scores and rankings in PISA have wide-ranging implications on government policy and even more relevant, on a country’s future scientific and technological advancement and therefore, economic status. This is the reason why both Vice President Sara Duterte, also education secretary, and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. were concerned on how to immediately remedy the situation, enough to have an emergency meeting in Malacañang to try to tweak education policies.
It is reassuring to note that the President acted swiftly to arrest the insidious slide in the quality of education in the primary and secondary levels, and the education secretary is with him in this initiative.
According the PISA study, some 24 percent of students in the Philippines only attained Level 2 or higher in Reading, the most basic of all the primordial learnings.
“At a minimum, these students can identify the main idea in a text of moderate length, find information based on explicit, though sometimes complex criteria, and can reflect on the purpose and form of texts when explicitly directed to do so. The share of 15-year-old students who attained minimum levels of proficiency in reading (Level 2 or higher) varied from 89% in Singapore to 8% in Cambodia,” the PISA results explained.
“In the Philippines, almost no students scored at Level 5 or higher in reading (OECD average: 7%). These students can comprehend lengthy texts, deal with concepts that are abstract or counterintuitive, and establish distinctions between fact and opinion, based on implicit cues pertaining to the content or source of the information,” PISA added.
The DepEd's initial move to solve the problem of Reading is its "Catch-Up Fridays" learning intervention program. According to a recent memo, half of all Fridays would be dedicated only to reading while the other half would be devoted to peace, values, and health education, in addition to the “Homeroom Guidance Program."