By NG Seruela
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte welcomed the World Bank’s apology on its report regarding the state of the Philippine education system.
In his public address on Monday (July 12) evening, he also commended Education Secretary Leonor Briones for calling out the World Bank for its “outdated” report.
“Well, I would not want to begrudge the World Bank. But itong mga international whatever bodies working on the problems of the world should be very careful in their statistics. It is not good to, you know, commit a wrong internationally. But good as any, we welcome their apology,” he said.
“I commend Secretary, again, Secretary Leonor Briones for calling out the World Bank on this issue. I hope a more accurate report based on the latest data will be made,” he added.
President Duterte said if money was present, they could have “upgraded everything to compete or reach parity with other first-class countries.”
“Kung may pera lang talaga sana tayo, kung maganda lang ang ating ekonomiya, and we’re earning just this much, we could have improved on the governance of all departments, all facets of governance. Ang problema nito wala masyado tayong pera. But what we have is enough to what you see now, that is the only thing that money can afford na nakikita ninyo ngayon.”
Duterte assured that the Department of Education (DepEd) is working on a new set of data to be submitted to the World Bank for correction.
“I have no doubt that the Department of Education will do everything it can to correct the misconception and I’m sure that the things that we will provide to them will be the true and accurate situation in the Philippines,” he said.
The World Bank’s report said that 80% of Filipino students’ proficiency levels are below minimum. In a public briefing July 5, DepEd Secretary Briones said the World Bank “admitted” that it used data from the 2019 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). – rir
READ MORE: http://152.42.253.13/deped-dismayed-by-world-bank-study-on-philippine-education/
