Angara eyes task force to improve PH’s PISA performance

The Department of Education (DepEd) has recommended the creation of a task force to improve the performance of Filipino students in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), Education Secretary Sonny Angara said Wednesday. 

In a post-SONA discussion, Angara said this was in line with the call of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to enhance the Philippines’ scores in local and international tests, including the PISA. 

"One of our recommendations is that we put up a task force for the PISA exams specifically because we need to modify local conditions to be able to perform better in these exams," the new DepEd secretary said. 

Angara said that there is also a need to change the pedagogy or the way teachers teach to include a more problem-solving approach. 

“The President mentioned developing critical thinkers, so it’s really the ability to make use of significant concepts moving forward,” he added. 

In his third SONA, Marcos emphasized that the national learning recovery program should proceed as soon as possible.

This, as he cited recent assessments which showed that more than half of learners in grades 6, 10, and 12 have failed to reach the ideal proficiency levels and scored low in information literacy, problem solving, and critical thinking skills.

In the 2022 PISA results, the Philippines also ranked sixth lowest among the 81 countries and economies that participated in the study, with Filipino learners continuing to lag behind in reading, math, and science.

In preparation for the next PISA set in 2025, Angara said that the DepEd has come up with short and long term interventions on how Filipino learners could improve their performance, with specific focus on the science subject. 

“In the short term, to possess these skills, we are injecting some periods in the everyday curriculum for reading to strengthen the foundations of literacy and numeracy,” he said. 

“In the long term, we have to really institute reforms also in how we teach. We’re inserting 30-minute reading periods in between classes to strengthen the reading and comprehension skills of our students, and we’re supplementing current initiatives like Catch-Up Fridays with focus on science projects,” he added. 

He said the agency will monitor the learners’ progress to see if the interventions they have made are effective. —VAL, GMA Integrated News