Deped’s response to the decline in education: For the better OR for worse?

The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) has released its most recent result (2018 Result) last December 3, 2019. The result was overwhelming and alarming at the same time. Unfortunately, The Philippines was at OR near the bottom in the ranking.

What is PISA?

PISA, is just of one the many programs of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This organization works in helping the global community to build better policies that foster prosperity, equality, opportunity and well-being for all. In other words, the results of their studies would help every country to realize effective and efficient policies that could lead to better quality of living for its citizens. See https://www.oecd.org/about/.

PISA as the name “Assessment” literally implies that it is a program that “measures” something. But wait, what is that something it measures and for whom is this assessment for? Well, just like any other assessments PISA has its focus; it focuses mainly on three major subjects, Reading, Mathematics and Science. It aims to measure how a 15-year-old use his knowledge and skills in the three areas in dealing with real-life challenges. See https://www.oecd.org/pisa/.

Did the result hurt? Then what?

As a member of the academe, I was also appalled by the result. I was frustrated at first because I don’t quiet get the purpose of PISA. I kept asking myself, where did we, teachers go wrong? Does it mean, we at the Department of Education are incompetent? Well, good thing I took some time reading and understanding the result as well as the purpose of PISA.

I am with our very hard-working Secretary when she said, “By participating in PISA, we will be able to establish our baseline in relation to global standards, and benchmark the effectiveness of our reforms moving forward. The PISA results, along with our own assessments and studies, will aid in policy formulation, planning, and programming,” (Source: Philippine Star, 2019).

I am happy to be part of an organization where it’s brave enough to recognize and accept the gaps that exist in our education system. I am happy because, we have these leaders who are more than experienced to handle and come up with better solutions rather than sugar coating the issue just to pacify the growling public.

Tell me, what now?

In response to the not so-so-satisfying result, I would agree to our agency head that this precisely rang a bell for all of us. “Even the results of our National Achievement Tests are also not good, so the urgency of addressing these issues lies in our hands.” Everyone must do his share for the attainment of our goal that is, to have a quality education.

The attainment of a quality education does not just happen overnight, it would take a lot of courage and dedication among us teachers. It’s like saying that the President cannot run the country without the help of his subordinates. Having said that, we should and must support the good initiatives our department is implementing. After all, it will not only benefit them but all of us will.

On December 3, 2019 in response to the PISA result and to the declining quality of our education, Deped’s battle cry “SulongEduKalidad” was launched. This program was carefully studied by our education leaders to solve the problem our agency is facing. Secretary Leonor M. Briones said that this initiative will involve reforms in four areas; (1) K to 12 reviews and updating (2) Improvement of learning facilities

(3) Teachers and school heads’ upskilling and reskilling through a transformed professional development program and (4) Engagement of all stakeholders for support and collaboration.

It is not anymore new to us that there were a lot of erroneous textbooks that were published and issued to different public schools for the teachers and learners to use, which is why the agency was flagged by the Commission on Audit (COA) for spending P254-M on these textbooks (Abs-CBN News, 2019; COA flags P254-M DepEd contract for error-filled textbooks). Admittedly, this is a huge loss for our agency’s budget. This problem could have been avoided if the authorities concerned were more careful in the publication of these textbooks. These issues brought rage from the general public including myself. From this day moving forward, Deped has been extra careful when it comes to the procurement of educational resources.

To support the agency’s quest for quality and inclusive education, the members of the congress and the President himself, approved the 2020 budget granting the Education sector P692.6-B pesos, the largest portion of the 2020 National Budget. Amidst the different criticisms coming from different people, Deped stays firm and focused on its goal.

Currently, the whole world is facing this horrible crisis – the Corona Virus Pandemic and our country is not an exemption. We saw how the powerful countries like China, Italy and the US were shattered. Many business establishments were affected; many people were forced to take a leave for their safety and above all, many students suffered because of the early suspension of classes. In other words, everyone is affected.

To prove that Deped is true to its mission, another program was launched just a week ago – to help learners to continue learning while at home as they adhere to the government’s call for an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ). Deped officials believed that, learning should not be stopped regardless of any uncertainties. It should and must continue, no matter what. March 17, 2020 when an online platform called “commons” was launched. At first, the said online portal wasn’t as popular as it was today, only few learners are using it. No teachers are contributing learning materials. However, all of these were turned 360 degrees on its “weeksary” today, the total number of users skyrocketed and the feedbacks of the parents and learners were just overwhelming. Parents said that the portal was user friendly and the contents were just amazing. Their children were studying their lessons as if they were just playing games. In short they are engaging! It brought us a lot of realization that, the way we should teach learners these days should be based on their own preference and should be relevant enough to their generation. The said online portal can be accessed thru http://commons.deped.gov.ph. It provides learning resources for all learners. The support coming from the teaching and non teaching work force was that strong also. Many teachers are generous enough to contribute their originally-made worksheets, interactive games and review materials to cater the varying needs of the learners.

With these great initiatives and programs crafted by the Department of Education, my verdict as to whether the agency I worked for is heading to the right direction, is an oozing “yes”. Truly, when there is innovation, there is learning, when there is learning we excel and when we excel there comes quality and when there is quality, there is SUCCESS!