MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte accepted the World Bank’s apology over the report on the state of student and learning outcomes in the Philippines on Monday, expressing hope that the financial institutions will soon issue a “more accurate” assessment.
“Well, I would not want to begrudge World Bank. But itong mga (these) international whatever bodies working on the problems of the world should be very careful in their statistics. It is not good to, you know, commit a wrong internationally. But good as any, we welcome their apology,” Duterte said during his regular Talk to the People.
The Department of Education (DepEd), according to Duterte, is working on a new set of data that will be sent to the financial institution soon “so that they can correct their figures and data inputs.”
“I commend [DepEd] Secretary Leonor Briones for calling out the World Bank on this issue. I hope a more accurate report based on the latest data will be made,” Duterte said.
Over the weekend, the World Bank apologized for publishing a report revealing low performance of Filipino students before the DepEd had a chance to make comments.
Duterte stated that the DepEd could have corrected the misconception and will release more accurate data concerning the educational performance of Filipino pupils.
“On that note and for the sake of the transparency and policy direction, we would like to know the latest assessment matrix of student performance and achievement, as well as the latest national data and figures in terms of learning outcomes, especially during the pandemic, so we can identify which gaps need to be addressed,” he said.
Meanwhile, Briones said it’s not fair to lay all the difficulties on education to Duterte’s administration.
Briones was also responding to Vice President Leni Robredo’s recent remarks about the need to declare an education crisis.
“I don’t know who should judge whether we have a crisis in education or not. Let say we have a crisis, then where does the crisis in education come from, after 123 years, 47 secretaries of education, after seven secretaries of education who refuse to participate in the international assessment,” she said.
