OVER again, a month after the country shifted gear for academic year 2025-2026 we have our eyes on the bulletin board shouting with bold, if embossed, letters on the Philippines’ educational system.
We are once more jabbed by the audacious writing on the board: the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment or PISA where Filipino students performed poorly in math, reading and science.
Not at all complimentary as such performance ranked this country, with a projected 27.6 million students enrolled in basic education from preschool to senior high school, both in private and public schools, near the bottom among participating countries.
Available figures show the Philippines ranked 77th out of 81 countries in the PISA assessment, which submits a consequential gap in learning levels compared to other nations, with some reports indicating the system is five to six years behind in essential areas like math, reading, and science.
We feel for educators and parents who have been understandably nudged by the 2022 PISA results which revealed that Filipino students were among the weakest globally in reading, math, and science
Expectably, this PISA assessment highlights a major challenge in basic skill and shows what some call a “learning crisis” in the Philippines where the students are far from achieving their full potential.
There may be a silver lining somewhere, that while the Philippines appears to drag its feet in international assessments, some reports suggest its education system is on par with or even slightly ahead of some other ASEAN countries, like Laos, Cambodia, and Myanmar, though still below Thailand and Vietnam.
But there is a resounding remonstrance in that the Philippines is generally rated the lowest in the ASEAN-6 if significant reforms are not implemented.
Here the authorities should get together and rise in unity to address the challenges confronting the Philippine education system which include inadequate resources, teacher training issues and the residual impact of the global health emergency which hit the country in March 2020.
Only then can we hope Filipino students can rise to the level of international scholastic standards which point to established touchstones for academic knowledge, skills and abilities they must achieve.
Education experts say these standards are typically organized within a framework like the International Standard Classification of Education which helps to systematize or normalize educational data across nations.
