ACT Teacher Partylist Rep. France Castro on Wednesday lamented the dismal performance of Filipino students at the latest Programme for International Student Assessment.

Castro said the Philippines’ performance in reading, mathematics, and science was ‘about the same’ as in 2018 when it ranked lowest in those subjects among 79 participating countries.

This means that the programs implemented by the Department of Education from then till now are ineffective and have not addressed the learning crisis.

“It also highlights the dire need to increase the budget of the education system of the country to at least 6% of our gross domestic product, with a thrust for building more classrooms, hiring more teachers and increasing their salaries as well as adopting a curriculum that would make learning easier for students and more attuned to the Philippine situation,” she added.

“The PISA results also show that the militaristic and “do as I say without questions asked style” in the DepEd now is detrimental to the learning of students. That allocating funds to surveil students and teachers is wrong since it deprives funds to hire more teachers or build more classrooms,” said the Deputy Minority leader.

Furthermore, Castro said that while the neoliberal metrics of international assessments like the PISA are questionable, the language barrier is a basic reason why the Philippines lags and our students are at a disadvantage in these tests.

“In the Philippines, the assessment is done in English as it is the main medium of instruction. This is a big impediment to student learning because they have to master the English language first before they can learn science and math concepts. In the classroom, they also cannot freely express themselves because English is not their vernacular. This dilemma also clips their ability for critical thinking and in formulating arguments,” she added.

“Ang Math at Science ay itinuturo sa English. Ang mga materyales sa pagtuturo at pag-aaral ay nasa English. Kulang na kulang ang suporta at pagsisikap para magkaroon ng mga materyales sa lokal na wika at pambansang wika. Kung gusto nating mafacilitate at mapabilis ang pagkatuto at pagintindi ng mga mag-aaral, dapat palakasin ang paggamit ng mga lokal na lenggwahe at ang ating pambansang wika na Filipino sa edukasyon. Dapat din itong iinstitusyonalisa at laanan ng karampatang pondo,” she opined

“Sa resultang ito ng PISA mukhang mas mainam na maglagay na talaga ng kalihim ng DepEd na galing mismo sa sektor ng edukasyon at alam ang dapat gawin sa kagawaran upang tunay na matuto ang mga mag-aaral. Mahirap na parang may part-time na kalihim lang sa DepEd at mas inaatupag pa ang pagmamanman sa mga guro at estudyante at maging hadlang sa makatarungang kapayapaan,” she concluded.