Bulatlat News
By ANNE MARXZE D. UMIL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA – The Philippine ranking in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is no surprise, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) said.
Last week, PISA released its 2022 report showing that the Philippines ranked the second-lowest out of 64 countries in creative thinking skills among 15-year-old students.
In a news report, PISA described the score of the Philippines as “statistically significant below average of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)” which was at 33 points. The Philippines’ score was 14.
In a statement, ACT said that while the conduct, language used and parameters applied by the study needs to be questioned, “there is no no denying that the country’s educational system is not designed to develop critical and creative thinking, no matter how much the Department of Education claims otherwise.”
“Our education system is designed to serve the import-dependent, export-oriented, pre-industrial character of the country’s economy, which, in the period of globalization finds itself competing with other poor countries in supplying cheap, semi-skilled and docile labor force to multinational companies locally and abroad,” the group added.
Read: DepEd program K+12 will only reinforce Labor Export Policy—League of Filipino Students
They also lamented that Philippine education puts premium to learning the English language at the earliest possible, “even if it is not the language in which Filipino students can best understand concepts, imagine things and express themselves.”
Read: Use of own language facilitates better learning, Filipino academics assert
ACT pointed out that Philippine education “is more concerned with developing the low order thinking skills of remembering, understanding and applying, thus its contentment in teaching basic literacy, memorization and following instructions.”
“It values ‘discipline’ above all, arranging the class as if students are workers in an assembly line, stripping classrooms of decorations so that students would focus on the teacher as their superior, reprimanding anyone who is out of line, thereby clipping the students’ freedom and ability to explore, question, and think critically and creatively,” they said, adding that the government’s K to 12 program is readying the students to be sellable in the labor market at the shortest possible time.
‘Govt’s long-time abandonment of education’
ACT pointed out the perennial problems of the education system like shortages in classrooms, teachers, education support personnel, facilities, and teaching and learning resources brought about by the government’s “long-time abandonment of education.”
“The situation has produced a dreary school landscape of too many students packed in hot classrooms, taught with a problematic curriculum by underpaid and overworked teachers. Education quality has steadily deteriorated with no salvation in sight,” ACT said.
Read: #UndoingDuterte | World Bank educ report proves government abandonment
Read: Teachers tell PH gov’t: address perennial problems of education sector
They said that the government should “provide the education system full funding it needs to address the chronic shortages, uplift the conditions of our teachers and personnel and improve education quality.”
“Through these, we can produce creative and critical young Filipinos who can propel the country to genuine progress,” ACT said.
According to the United Nations, the standard budget for education should be at least 6% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product. But, according to the ACT Teacher Party, the Philippines budget allocation to the education sector is still below the UN standard even if it has minimal increase in 2023 fiscal year.
For ACT, the development of critical and creative thinking students is essential to national development “for them to be able to question and analyze the country’s present predicament, to think outside the box and imagine a better system than the status quo, and to conceive ways as to how they can contribute in achieving it.”
“This cannot be done without re-examining the very orientation and design of our education and economic systems, and freeing ourselves from the role imposed on us by foreign capital,” they added. (RTS, JJE) 
