Key Takeaways:
- The World Bank reported the gaps and crises in the Philippine education sector.
- Philippine Business for Education seconded the claims by presenting a series of infographics.
- The Department of Education Secretary demanded an apology; the World Bank took it down and apologized.
The World Bank’s recent report on the gaps and crises in the Philippines’ education sector, which drew scathing remarks from officials, showed parallel results to the figures presented by Philippine Business for Education (PBEd).
The group advocating for educational reforms has released a comprehensive infographic showing the current state of education in the Philippines by the numbers. These figures show a similar take of the World Bank’s initial report.
Source: Philippine Business for Education
While the World Bank reported that only 10 percent of Filipino fifth-graders do not meet the global standards because of their limited proficiency in using the English language, PBEd reported that fifth-graders do not meet the proficiencies of their level. For instance, students only got the following scores: 10/100 in reading, 2/100 in writing, and 17/100 in mathematics.
Those in the third grade still experience difficulty in reading both English and Filipino texts.
Alongside the challenges posed by the pandemic are grammatical errors, wrong mathematical equations, and gender stereotyping in the texts.
The World Bank has also found that bullying was rampant at all levels, with school officials unaware of its seriousness in various schools.
The World Bank has concluded that a “crisis in education” was evident in the Philippines. Department of Education Secretary Leonor Briones opposed the report’s findings, saying that the data presented are already old, and later on demanded an apology from the World Bank.
Before midnight on Friday, July 9, the World Bank officially took down the report and apologized for unwittingly publishing earlier than scheduled and before the department had the chance to provide up-to-date information.
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