The Department of Education on Tuesday demanded an apology from the World Bank for using an outdated data that shamed and insulted the Filipino students and the entire nation.
“We expect and look forward” to an apology from the World Bank over its report that about 80 percent of Filipino students fall below the minimum level of proficiency for their grade levels, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said.
The World Bank report was based on the 2019 Program for International Student Assessment, said Briones during a Malacanang briefing.
Briones said the Washington-based lender failed to follow protocol by providing an advance copy of its report to the Philippine government before releasing it to media.
The World Bank has lent the Philippine education sector some $300 million since 1981, Briones noted.
According to the report, around 80 percent of Filipino students fall below the minimum level of proficiency for their grade levels.
The Philippines came out last in reading, and second-to-last in science and mathematics, among 79 countries that participated in the Program for International Student Assessment.
In the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in 2019, the country was cellar dweller in both mathematics and science among 58 countries in the fourth-grade assessment.
The Philippines was also in the bottom half of the 6 countries in reading, mathematics and writing literacy in the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics in 2019.
