DepEd seeks public apology from World Bank after ‘insulting’ report on PH education

[graham59]

I heard that the World Bank has now allocated  the millions they were about to give to the Phils, to the next one on the list.

Oh well. That's smart educators for you. 

[Mike J]

Sounds like at least one lawmaker was not impressed with the DepEd's statement that things are getting better and a demand for an apology.  Additional funds to improve teaching skills would help provided it does end up being spent for snacks at some resort. 

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1458441/lawmaker-urges-congress-to-earmark-billions-for-retooling-of-educators

MANILA, Philippines — Congress should earmark “billions of pesos” in fresh funding to retool public school teachers following the deteriorating performance of Filipino students in global assessments, according to Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas.

Gullas said in a statement on Sunday that the government was only spending P723 per head annually for the continuing education of teachers through formal in-service training, adding that this was “a ridiculously low amount.”

Under the 2021 national budget, he said the Department of Education (DepEd) only received P675 million “for the in-service training and other learning and development interventions to upgrade the competence of public school teachers.”

In 2020, the DepEd had a budget of only P780 million for the same purpose.

“We should be investing anywhere from P5,000 to P10,000 per head every year to develop the knowledge and skills of our teachers, particularly in English, math and science, through seminars and workshops,” he said.

Earlier, the World Bank (WB) released a report that Filipino students “do not know what they should know in school” while the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 by a Netherlands-based research institution ranked the Philippines last among 58 countries in math and science.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones has demanded an apology from the World Bank following the release of its “insulting” report, which she said was based on “outdated” global assessments.

WB apology
The World Bank later apologized, saying that the report was “inadvertently published earlier than scheduled.”

Gullas, however, said that they were “convinced that English, math and science are not being taught effectively in our public school system.”

He urged the DepEd to partner with teacher training institutions at the University of the Philippines, Philippine Normal University, and the Development Academy of the Philippines.

Vice President Leni Robredo, for her part, on Sunday said the government should consider declaring an education crisis amid the growing needs of teachers and students in the past year, even as the DepEd tries to paint a rosier picture of the country’s educational system during the pandemic.

During her weekly radio show, Robredo noted that the recent World Bank report claiming that the Philippine educational system was “lagging behind”—for which an infuriated Briones demanded an apology—was actually not the first report that showed gaps in the country’s distance learning strategy.

‘Declare an education crisis’
The report, which was based on its 2019 Program for International Student Assessment data, found that 80 percent of Filipinos fall below the minimum proficiency for their grade levels.

“To be fair to the DepEd, I am sure they have done more than what was reflected in the World Bank study,” she said. “But this is why we need an update based on latest data so we know where we are.”

“There are a lot of things we can do, [like] declare an education crisis because we are reactive while our issues are worsening,” she added.

She noted, for example, the seeming “growing digital divide” between private and public schools—a concern that has hounded the country’s shift to distance learning even since last year.

Historically, too, the DepEd has always gotten the lion’s share of the national budget. But from 2017 up to 2021, the Department of Public Works and Highways has taken the larger slice of the budgetary pie, taking P1 billion bigger than the DepEd.

“Let’s do everything we can to overcome this crisis,” Robredo added. “It’s the children who would suffer if we don’t do this.”

 

[HappyJack]

I was always taught that if you earn it, OWN IT.

The Philippines earned it.  The education here is atrocious.  But as usual they don't want to own up to anything.  Its never their fault and they are never responsible.  And now top it off with 2 years of module B******t I don't think I can stay here knowing my kids will never get educated.

[Snowy79]

I think if I was the World Bank I'd redo it and not hold back this time.  

[graham59]

Welcome to 2021.... good or bad ?    

 

.

 

[Mike J]

1 hour ago, graham59 said:

Welcome to 2021.... good or bad ?    

 

.

 

Poor substitute at best.  And even that assumes the student has a smart phone or computer with access to the internet.  A common challenge in our area of the province.  Here they used mostly printed "modules".  In my opinion the school year was basically lost and it could very well end up being the same for 2022.   

[GeoffH]

2 hours ago, Mike J said:

Poor substitute at best.  And even that assumes the student has a smart phone or computer with access to the internet.  A common challenge in our area of the province.  Here they used mostly printed "modules".  In my opinion the school year was basically lost and it could very well end up being the same for 2022.   

Most of the children in our family also used printed "modules" and a numbers of them were poorly/partly completed (or finished by older siblings). 

A lot of the baranguay the family live in doesn't have cell phone coverage and even if they do have coverage and a phone it's likely to be a feature phone not a smart phone and even if they have coverage and a (cheap) smart phone then they don't always have load. 

SWMBO hosted 2 of her younger cousins for months in the spare 3rd floor bedroom and allowed them to use the iPad but even that was far from perfect because the connection just wasn't fast enough to the teacher and one ended up doing the paper modules anyway with more  help from SWMBO than was ideal.

I doubt either of them learnt that much... although probably more than their cousins who had no devices or help at all.

Edited July 13, 2021 by GeoffH

[hk blues]

We're in the fortunate position of our son having online classes using Zoom/Google Classroom.  It's certainly not as good as being in the physical classroom (for mainly non-academic reasons) but it's an acceptable compromise.  I just wish they provided classes for more than half a day in line with what I'm paying!  

Again, we see a stark divide between the wealthier and poorer groups here, and it doesn't seem to be a priority to resolve this seeing as we're likely facing another year of it. 

[Mike J]

A blistering editorial piece that is well written and speaks to the rapid decline in Philippine education.  The author pulls no punches and concludes that the education system "has been brought to its knees".

https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/07/19/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/arroyo-aquino-and-duterte-regimes-share-blame-for-education-mess/1807515

IN her press statement demanding an apology from the World Bank (WB) for its report on the Philippines' poor student achievement, which she claimed to have shamed and insulted the country, Education Secretary Leonor Briones alleged the report "lacked historical context." In her message acknowledging the apology of the WB, she referred to efforts being undertaken by the Department of Education (DepEd) and its partners "to resolve the century-old issues plaguing the Philippine education system."

Clearly, Secretary Briones is insinuating that the causes of the poor performance of current students cited in the report go back to the Thomasites. I beg to disagree. The utter and unacceptable failure of the DepEd to teach the most basic skills, especially reading, which has resulted in 80 percent of Filipino kids performing below their grade level as pointed out in the WB report reaches only as far back as the Arroyo era and worsening during the Duterte administration. I dare anyone, including Secretary Briones, to refute the following evidence:

1. A national reading profile data from DepEd published in the Unesdoc Digital Library shows that the national nonreader incidence in 2005 was 1.74 percent and 2.56 percent in 2006 ("The Philippines country case study" by Rhona Caoli-Rodriguez, 2007). On the other hand, the 2019 Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM) found that 27 percent of our Grade 5 pupils could not read based on the SEA-PLM definition of reading literacy ("SEA-PLM 2019 Main Regional Report").

2. Through its policy note, "Pressures on Public School Teachers and Implications on Quality," published in February 2019, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies urged the DepEd to stop sending nonreaders to high school.

3. In November 2019, DepEd issued DepEd Memorandum No. 173, series of 2019, urging the intensification of reading literacy advocacy in all levels of the agency. This was the first time DepEd broke its silence on the reading crisis. To date, at least seven regional offices acted on the existence of nonreaders even in high schools in their areas with DepEd-CAR (Cordillera Administrative Region), DepEd-Region 10 (Northern Mindanao) and DepEd-NCR (National Capital Region) imposing a "No Read, No Move" policy.

4. In 2016, performance in the Grade 6 National Achievement Test (NAT) crashed from the 69.10 mean percentage score (MPS) in 2015 to 41.45 or by 27.65 points (39.6 percent). This was unprecedented because, previously, the biggest decrease in the Grade 6 overall MPS from one year to the next was the 4.07, or 6.93 percent, incurred in 2006. The score declined further to 39.95 and 37.44 in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The average overall Grade 6 MPS from 2005 to 2015 is 64.96 while from 2016 to 2018, it is 39.61 for a difference of 25.35 or 39.02 percent.

5. Our Grade 4 pupils who took the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 2003 scored 358 in mathematics and 332 in science, which were good for third to the last rank in both subjects. The 2019 batch obtained 297 in mathematics and 249 in science ranking last in both subjects. The 2003 pupils outperformed their counterparts in 2019 by 61 points, or 17.03 percent, in mathematics and by 83 points or 25 percent in science. The showing of the 2003 Grade 4 batch was no fluke because the Grade 8 Filipino examinees in the TIMSS placed third to the last in both subjects in 1999, improving to fifth to the last in mathematics and fourth to the last in science in 2003.
World Bank apologizes for critical report

6. In its paper "Foundational Mathematics and Reading Skills of Filipino Students Over a Generation," the Asian Development Bank found that the mathematics skills of Grade 10 students had deteriorated between 2003 and 2019 with the decline between 2013 and 2019 four times more severe than between 2003 and 2013 ("WB apologizes for PH education report; ADBI echoes findings," Philippine Daily Inquirer, July 10, 2021).

This evidence likewise supports the conclusion that the scrapping of the time-honored Grade 1 reading cut-off in 2001 and the introduction of the mother tongue policy in school year 2012 to 2013 were the blunders, which have brought Philippine basic education to its knees.

[Old55]

Add to this the pandemic. We have a generation of Filipinos severely lacking basic education. The rich grow richer and the poor suffer.