Romulo: Reforms not Duterte resignation to address PISA results

Vice President Sara Duterte should not take the fall and resign from her post as education secretary in the aftermath of the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results where the Philippines ranked the sixth lowest among 81 countries, a House leader said Thursday.

 
House Committee on Basic Education and Culture Roman Romulo noted that the 2022 PISA test, which showed little improvement from the Philippines’ 2018 scores when the country ended with the worst scores, was only taken sometime during 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 when asked whether Duterte should vacate her post following the country’s dismal PISA performance.
 

“Moving forward, DepEd (Department of Education) should implement these reforms at the earliest possible time,” Romulo added.
 

Back in August, DepEd under Duterte’s helm launched the Matatag curriculum which reduces the number of subjects, with greater emphasis given on the development of Kinder to Grade 3 learners' foundational skills—such as literacy, numeracy, and socio-emotional skills.

 

Duterte said that "peace competencies" will also be integrated in the new curriculum to highlight “the promotion of non-violent actions and the development of conflict-resolution skills in learners.”

 

Last month, the Education department also announced that the program Catch Up Fridays will be implemented starting January 12, 2024 to help students to read and comprehend better.

 

Under Catch Up Fridays, all learners from kindergarten to Grade 12 will be given time to read books, articles, and other reading materials based on their interests, and be tasked to write books, essays, and book reviews and analyses.

 
Educator should lead DepEd

But for House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of ACT Teachers party-list, the PISA results underscore the urgency of having a real educator leading 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, who was a school teacher prior to her election in Congress.
 

“Given the results, it would be better to have an Education Secretary who is from the education sector who knows what to do to ensure that our students are able to learn their lessons. It is tough to have a part-time DepEd Secretary who is more interested in surveillance and is an obstacle to having just peace,” Castro added.

 

Castro, however, agreed with the observation of DepEd Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio that PISA assessment, which is done in English, puts Filipino students at a disadvantage because it is not our national language but the language use did as medium of instruction.

 

The solon said the language barrier is a basic reason why the Philippines lags behind and why students are at a disadvantage in these tests.


“Countries who usually take the top tier of these assessments are those whose main medium of instruction is their national language, that is why learning is well facilitated, and they perform better in the tests which were conducted in their own languages," Castro said.
 

 "In the Philippines, the assessment is done in English as it is the main medium of instruction. This is a big impediment to student learning because they have to master the English language first before they can learn science and math concepts.  In the classroom, they also cannot freely express themselves because English is not their vernacular. This dilemma also clips their ability for critical thinking and in formulating arguments," she added.—RF, GMA Integrated News