If we go by the standards of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the wealthiest countries in the world, Filipino senior high students lagged behind among their counterparts in 78 countries.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones said she is alarmed over the results that she ordered a review of the English as medium of instruction.
Inquirer reported that the Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa) conducted an educational achievement test to 600,000 students aged 15 years worldwide, including Philippines, last year.
PISA reported that among 79 countries surveyed, the Philippines scored 340 — lowest in reading literacy.
Filipino senior high students also was the second lowest in mathematics and scientific literacy with average scores of 353 and 357 respectively.
Private school students outperformed public school students across all three categories: reading (390), mathematics (395) and science (399) but their scores are still lower than the average OECD median.
The proficiency tests were conducted in the medium of instruction. In the case of the Philippines — English.
“It (English) is clearly a weakness of our learners and could possibly have an effect on [their] performance,” said Briones. “Therefore, I direct the Curriculum and Instruction [Office] … to look into this proficiency in English, particularly in science and mathematics.”
Globally, Chinese students topped the global educational assessment with a score of 555 in reading, 591 in math, and 590 in science.
In the Southeast Asian region, Singapore got the highest mark with 549 points in reading, 569 in math, and 551 in science.
OECD noted though certain peculiarities in the Philippine educational setting:
1. Government spending per student was lowest in the Philippines among all participating countries, i.e. 90 percent lower than what was the average OECD expenditure for education.
2. Around 94 percent of Filipino students who took the test are bilingual — the second highest percentage among all the countries that were assessed after Lebanon.
3. The number of respondents was smaller than most other participating countries, possibly due to high number of dropouts by senior year.
