Government urged to help improve students’ critical thinking skills

MANILA, Philippines — A local think tank is calling on the government to boost digital connectivity in schools across the country to improve students’ critical thinking skills.

“The start of another school year is upon us, and aside from the usual problems of providing basic school facilities for our public school students, we must address the lack of critical thinking skills that would allow them to navigate the challenges of the real world,” Stratbase ADR Institute president Victor Andres Manhit said.

“We want our learners to be capable of critical thinking so that they can analyze information and distinguish the real from the fake, form their opinions from sound and logical arguments, solve problems, and make evidence-based decisions in different aspects of their lives,”he said.

But critical thinking will not be achieved without the foundational skills obtained from the areas of math, science and reading, he warned.

Manhit said he supports the new leadership at the Department of Education as it seeks to improve the Philippines’ performance in the next round of ranking of the Program for International Student Assessment, which measures the performance in these three subjects of students all over the world.

In the recent PISA ranking, the Philippines scored 353 in reading, 340 in mathematics and 357 in science, among the lowest in its ranking.

“We were hoping that the dismal results in 2018 would prompt us to work harder for the sake of our students, but then the pandemic happened, and our schools were not ready to quickly shift to online learning creating what experts call a learning gap that must be addressed,” Manhit said.

“As of 2022, we remained one of the most learning challenged countries in the world. This has tremendous impact not only on our economic future as a country but on the quality of life of our people,” Manhit said.

Unfortunately, the glaring and persistent digital divide in the Philippines leaves students in disadvantaged areas far behind their counterparts in more “connected” geographical locations.