PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has ordered the Department of Education to improve the country’s performance in the Programme for International Student Assessment.

DepEd should focus on improving teachers’ teaching quality and competency, nutrition, addressing campus bullying, and aiding teachers on specializations, Marcos said.

“Pagdating sa teachers kasi talagang para sa ating Pangulo, napakaimportante ng ating mga teachers. And we agree, teaching quality will really improve. Sabi nga ng ating Pangulo, he believes around 60-percent improvement kung mapabuti din natin iyong ating teaching quality,” Education Undersecretary Michael Poa said.

Poa furthered that DepEd will continue to strengthen its programs in terms of bullying, in coordination with other agencies such as the Department of Health.

Meanwhile, DepEd Undersecretary Gina Gonong said the Philippines recorded a two-point increase in Reading in PISA score; seven points in Math, but dropped by one point in Science.

Gonong stressed that the numbers do not have significant differences.

“So iyong increase o kaya iyong decrease has nothing to do with performance level. So, tama ang sabi mo kanina, talagang nananatili tayo sa low proficiency level. So, 2018 at saka 2022, low performance levels tayo sa PISA,” she said.

A total of 7,193 15-year-old Filipino students from 188 schools, representing 83 percent of the total population of 15-year-old students in the country, completed the computer-based test.