'Stagnating at the bottom': Officials say time and funding needed to improve PISA scores

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education and lawmakers focused on education policy have highlighted the need for curriculum reforms to “take time” to work after recent Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) results indicate the country is now “stagnating at the bottom.”

Released on Tuesday, the latest PISA results show that Filipino students continue to rank below most of the world in mathematics, reading and science, with the Philippines neither improving nor regressing from its performance in the 2018 cycle.

In all three categories, just less than a quarter of students attained the minimum or basic level of proficiency — findings that DepEd said were similar to the results of recent National Achievement Tests.

“We do aim to be a top performer, but when that happens, that’s the question… The impact of reforms are not that immediate. It takes time for reforms to work,” Education Undersecretary Gina Gonong said during a press conference on Wednesday, referring to recent DepEd initiatives to revise the curriculum and implement learning recovery programs.

A more realistic goal, Gonong said, would be to achieve similar results to neighboring Asian countries Vietnam,  Thailand and Malaysia. 

“I think that’s more realistic in the coming years, maybe 2029 onwards,” Gonong added.

PISA noted in its global report that “the most significant changes” in education “can often only be seen and understood over the long term.”

“Some of the most important education-policy reforms affect how schools operate and what students learn only very gradually. For example, changes in initial teacher education can take decades before their effects are visible in most classrooms,” PISA said.

The latest PISA results also indicate that the Philippines has “bottomed out,” said Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairperson of the Senate education committee.

“In the parlance of finance, we have hit the bottom. There’s no way for us to go up. We can expect later on to see improvements in scores,” Gatchalian said. 

Similar to DepEd officials, Gatchalian lamented the single-digit changes in the Philippines’ scores in mathematics, reading and science from 2018 to 2022.

“Our improvements