THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers welcomed Vice President Leni Robredo’s acknowledgment that there is an education crisis and expressed hope that her concern will prompt more action from the government.

ACT said that the crisis in education worsened because of the pandemic.

The group challenged President Rodrigo Duterte and the Department of Education to consider Robredo’s call for solutions.

“VP Leni’s remarks about the state of education are well-grounded. She is not ashamed to admit that there is a crisis in the Philippine education system, and is seeking out solutions while actively participating in addressing the gaps in DepEd’s programs. We believe that these should be welcomed and engaged, not snapped at by the Chief of Staff of DepEd,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

“DepEd should learn to better appreciate criticisms as crucial in bettering the quality of education, and should use these as starting points in demanding better support from the national government,” he added.

Basilio said that the World Bank report on Philippine education that irked Education Secretary Leonor Briones should be the starting point in identifying the weaknesses in the education system.

“The government made a big fuss about World Bank’s failure to discuss with them first the results of its study, but have not expressed equal alarm at the poor performance of students — as if these are completely baseless. As VP Leni noted, the World Bank only conceded to the lapse in protocol, not to the wrongfulness of their data. Perhaps with the world bank’s apology and the government’s egos appeased, we can finally start rooting the problems in education that has led to consistently poor student performance in various tests,” he added.