"There are as many opportunities to improve the quality of our education as there are factors that affect it."
"There are as many opportunities to improve the quality of our education as there are factors that affect it."
Early this month, the World Bank released the results of its assessment of the Philippine education system. The assessment was done pre-COVID. The report revealed that many students in the country “do not know what they should know.” Since the release of the report, the Department of Education (DepEd) has claimed that the assessment failed to reflect the improvements and reforms it had introduced.
The World Bank has removed its report from its website. Despite this, the report made a huge impact on our own appraisal of the quality of our education. There were several factors found that contributed to declining performance of students—campus violence and bullying, low growth mindset, lack of understanding the language used as medium of instruction, and poor health and nutrition.
Our education system has been riddled with some of these problems for decades. We have long recognized the lack of facilities, bullying, and hunger as obstacles in academic performance. Yet, authorities have been persistent in improving the quality and affordability of education, addressing classroom and resource shortages, providing nutritional support, among others.
Today, the pandemic has forced schools to conduct classes through blended and distance learning, which is far different from traditional face-to-face classes. The willingness of students, parents, teachers, and educational institutions to adapt with the new learning set-up, however, proves that Filipinos truly value education. DepEd’s direction on this is worth commending even amid technological and mobility issues. It must have been a whirlwind of preparation for them to adjust to the challenges brought about by the pandemic.
Nonetheless, this report should be taken as a wake-up call. In this pandemic, DepEd should divert its full attention and resources to improve this learning set-up for the coming school year, especially that numerous module mishaps and errors have been found and have surfaced on social media. Moreover, there should be adequate support provided to teachers in order to sustain distance learning.
The World Bank has been helpful in evaluating our country’s position and performance in many aspects. However, I deem it only fair that it gives due notice to DepEd before releasing its findings. Nonetheless, perhaps DepEd should also take this opportunity to assess the report and determine whether any of it holds true. Are Filipino kids hard-pressed in studying Math and Science using English? Would Filipino students appreciate lessons more by using their local dialect as the language of instruction? Is bullying still rampant? How can DepEd address the low growth mindset of Filipino youth?
I recognize that DepEd has a lot on its plate right now, but here’s hoping it would be open to constructive criticism. We give credit to their hard work and effort that paid off during the first year of the pandemic. However, it would be remiss for DepEd to completely ignore the World Bank findings and to miss out on coming up with creative opportunities to strengthen our state of education. There are as many opportunities to reform and improve the quality of our education as there are factors that affect it.