PISA: Philippines 5 to 6 years behind

MANILA, Philippines — The dismal performance of the Philippines in the

2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) indicates that
students in the country are five to six years behind in learning
competencies, according to the Department of Education (DepEd).

“If we follow the computation (of PISA) with caveats, based on the OECD
(Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) with
socioeconomically advantaged students, we can see that (we) are around
five to six years behind,” Alexander Sucalit, officer-in-charge of the
DepEd’s Bureau of Education Assessment-Education Research Division,
told reporters.

Based on the PISA report released last Tuesday, the mean scores of
countries that participated in the 2022 PISA were 472 for mathematics, 476
for reading and 485 for science.

The Philippines scored about 120 points less than the average scores in its
2022 assessment: 355 for math, 347 for reading and 373 for science.

This meant that every 20 points lacking from the average represent one
year of annual pace of learning of 15-year-olds in countries that participate
in the PISA, according to the OECD.

“But we have to be cautious in interpreting this because different countries

have different paces of learning, so it’s just an estimate for the participating
countries. We look not only at this figure, but we also look at other factors,”
Sucalit explained.

For the second time, the Philippines landed in the bottom 10 out of 81
countries in reading comprehension, mathematics and science, based on
the 2022 PISA.

Indicators of the test, however, showed that despite moving up the rank,
the performance of students showed minimal improvement.

Overall, the Philippines achieved a 2.2-percentage point hike in

mathematics from 2018 to 2022, 6.9 percent in reading and a 0.8-percent
drop in science proficiency.
2022 PISA results a 'clear indication' that
PH education system is in ‘worst state’ ---
PBEd
An advocacy group on Wednesday, Dec. 6, said that the Philippines’ dismal ranking in the
2022 Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) for the second time was a
“clear indication” that the education system is in its “worst state” and “much work” needs to
be done.

“The poor performance of our learners is not just a problem of education alone, but our
country as a whole,” said the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd).

PBEd issued the statement after the Department of Education (DepEd), in a national
forum, presented the latest results of PISA which showed that Filipino students remained
poor performers in mathematics, science, and reading.

For PBEd, the weaknesses in the basic education system will eventually translate into the
weakness of the country’s workforce --- “affecting the productivity and key source of our
economic growth and competitiveness.”

PBEd stressed that a “crisis of this magnitude” requires swift action and great effort from all
sectors.

In math, reading, and science, the Philippines was ranked as among the lowest performers
among the 81 countries under the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD) countries.

In math, the Philippines is 76th. The OECD average is at Level 2 or a score of 472 but the
Philippines’ average is at Level 1b or a score of 355.

In reading, the country ranked 79th. The OECD average is at Level 2 or a score of 476 but
the Philippines is at Level 1a or a score of 347.

In science, the Philippines ranked 80th. The OECD average is at Level 3 or 485 score points
but the Philippines is at Level 1a or a score of 356.
HOTS PLPs will support
teachers to teach better –
NEAP OIC Director
National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP) OIC Director Dr. Jennifer Lopez
underscored the importance of the Higher Order Thinking Skills – Professional Learning
Packages (HOTS-PLPs) in “helping teachers teach better” as she spoke at the National Training
of Trainers (NTOT) for the rollout of the learning packages.

The training followed RCTQ’s capacitation of more than 300 core team members on 5-8 June 2023
who now serve as trainers-facilitators for more than 1,500 NTOT participants that have
converged in Cebu City every week per subject group from June 19 until July 7, 2023.
“NEAP strongly supports the administration’s MATATAG Agenda. More specifically, NEAP is
mandated to contribute to the fourth pillar of MATATAG, which is to Give support to teachers to
teach better,” Director Lopez said, referring to DepEd’s current reform agenda. “These resource
packages will help teachers achieve that.”
The learning packages for Grades 7-10 teachers of Science, Mathematics and
English/Reading aimed to provide support materials for teachers to help them develop the higher
order thinking skills of their students by developing HOTS items/questions using the Structure of
the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) framework with answers and advice.

NEAP is now on its second week of conducting the NTOT with the first week being organized for
544 Science trainers, this week for more than 500 Mathematics trainers, and next week for
English/Reading trainers. They aim to train a total of 1,632 school leaders as HOTS-PLPs
trainers who will roll out the materials in all public schools nationwide.

Director Lopez also emphasized to the participants the need to embed the use of these materials
in every school’s professional learning community.

“As the Department of Education renews its focus in upgrading education quality, the
strengthening of the professional training and development at the school level of our nearly a
million teachers is urgent and necessary,” she said. “By collaborating with RCTQ for this
initiative, we aimed to help teachers and school leaders to continuously reflect on and work
closely together during their learning action cells (LAC) and in-service training. The ultimate goal
is to improve the teaching practice, and enable teachers to develop their learners’ higher-order
thinking skills (HOTS) so these learners can succeed academically and thrive in their future
endeavors.”

RCTQ assisted DepEd in developing and now in the rollout of these learning packages as their
shared response to the findings from a series of international assessments showing poor
performance of Filipino learners. The results of the 2018 Programme for International Student
Assessment (PISA) for Filipino learners. ranked the Philippines last in Reading and second last in
Mathematics and Science out of 79 countries. PISA is an assessment that measures 15-year-
olds’ ability to use their higher order thinking skills in Reading, Mathematics and Science to meet
real-life challenges. The same areas of learners’ poor performance were also documented
through an analysis of teachers’ performance in RCTQ’s Teacher Development Needs Study in
2014.
The learning packages address the following indicators in the three sets of DepEd’s professional
standards:

Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST)

 Indicator 1.5.2: Apply a range of teaching strategies to develop critical and creative thinking, as
well as other higher order thinking skills.
 Indicator 1.5.3: Develop and apply effective teaching strategies to promote critical and creative
thinking, as well as other higher order thinking skills.
Philippine Professional Standards for School Heads (PPSSH)
 Indicator 3.2.2: Provide technical assistance to teachers on teaching standards and pedagogies
within and across learning areas to improve their teaching practice.
Philippine Professional Standards for Supervisors (PPSS)
 Indicator 3.1.2: Apply appropriate instructional leadership support strategies to help
divisions/districts/schools and/or learning centers with the continuous improvement of the
teaching-learning process.
In 2021, RCTQ provided research and technical assistance to NEAP in the development of the
PLPs with support from the Australian government through its Philippines COVID-19
Development Response Plan. (RCTQ Comms)