Education Secretary Leonor Briones said that there is no need to declare an educational crisis in the country as previously called for following the recent World Bank report on the status of education.
Briones said that she was the only Philippine education chief who made the decision to join the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), which the World Bank used as its basis to evaluate the country’s education system.
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“Ang question is I don’t know who should judge whether we have crisis in education or not. Who should judge that we have a crisis education or not? Kung sabihin natin na may crisis education, saan galing ang crisis education after 123 years? After 47 secretaries of Philippine education, after seven secretaries of education, who refused in the international assessment?” Briones said in a Cabinet meeting on Monday.
Briones added that the country has a debt of over $1 billion to fund the education system.
“Malaki, halos isang bilyon ang inutang natin in dollars para sa edukasyon so kasali din sila sa nangyari sa edukasyon,” she said.
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The deleted World Bank report showed that 80% of Filipino students do not meet international learning standards.
Earlier, Robredo suggested to call for an ‘education crisis’ to address the matter with urgency.
“We should declare an education crisis because our problems only grow worse when we are slow to react,” Robredo said in her radio show. (TDT)
