EDITORIAL - Weak in the three R’s

While blended learning has allowed formal education to continue amid COVID pandemic restrictions, concerns have been raised on the quality of education being imparted in environments outside the classroom.

The quality of education drew heightened concern last year following the release of the results of the 2018 Program for International Student Assessment. The two-hour PISA test, administered by computer, showed 15-year-old students from the Philippines performing poorly among 79 countries in reading comprehension, science and mathematics. Among the 600,000 students who participated, the 7,233 Filipinos fared lowest in English reading comprehension and second to the lowest in science and math.

According to reports, not even 20 percent of the Filipino students reached the minimum level of proficiency in reading in English, as graded in the PISA system overseen by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

A year later, a regional study conducted among fifth graders showed similar results. According to Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, the 2019 Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics indicated that among Filipino students, only 10 percent showed sufficient proficiency in reading, only 17 percent in mathematics and a dismal one percent in writing. The SEA-PLM results, according to Gatchalian, indicate that only about a tenth of Filipino learners showed sufficient competencies in the so-called three R’s – reading, writing and arithmetic – for the transition to secondary education.

The SEA-PLM 2019 pen-and-paper test was conducted in six Southeast Asian countries by the United Nations Children’s Fund and the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization. In the Philippines, 6,083 Grade 5 students participated.

Amid the pandemic, countries are grappling with ways of continuing formal education without exposing students and educators alike to COVID infection, and without leaving less privileged children behind. The results of the SEA-PLM test also emphasize the need for sufficient focus on the quality of the education that is imparted, even amid a crippling public health crisis.