Philippines will take ‘at least 10 years’ to make proficiency grade
Its ‘historic’ US$23 billion education budget might not be enough to close long-standing gaps, experts say
Only four in 1,000 senior high school students are proficient in areas such as problem-solving, managing and communicating information and analysing data to form ideas, according to findings by the Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), tasked with assessing the country’s education sector.
The commission’s report, being released on Monday, examined data from the Department of Education (DepEd) and found that proficiency levels drop sharply from 30 per cent at Grade 3 to 0.4 per cent at Grade 12.
This means that about 70 per cent of Grade 3 students struggle with foundational skills, such as reading common words, recognising letters and sounds, understanding short texts and basic arithmetic.
By the time they reach Grade 6, the levels fall to 19 per cent before dropping dramatically at high school.
“Since we are dealing with deep-seated problems spanning nearly three decades, we need at least 10 years,” EDCOM 2 Executive Director Karol Mark Yee said on January 18, in a local radio programme on the station Super Radyo dzBB.