By Estanislao Albano, Jr.
In the “PISA 2018 National Report of the Philippines,” the Department of Education’s report on the performance of our students in the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) where we landed last among 79 countries, the agency highlighted the alleged better performance of our senior high school students over our junior high school takers which translated to a difference of 89.33 in their overall average scores.
In contrast, the “PISA 2018 Results” of the Overseas for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a source document of the DepEd report, dealt with the education systems of each country as one. Neither did the OECD mention the alleged disparity in performance between senior and junior high school students in the Philippines where it discussed significant findings on the scores of our takers including factors which caused differences in showing such as socioeconomic status and gender.
More importantly, Figure.1.3.3 of the “PISA 2018 Results” showed that only more or less 1 percent of our examinees were in senior high, all of them in Grade 11. The DepEd report was silent on these details thus readers are not aware only around 70-80 Grade 11 students among the 7,233 Filipino 2018 PISA takers represented the senior high school.
It is glaring that the team who prepared the report which included Director Nelia Benito of Bureau of Education Assessment, the DepEd office in charge of the conduct the National Achievement Test (NAT), fussed over the irrelevant disparity when they knew the Grade 11 students in 2018 went on to take the Basic Education Exit Assessment (BEEA) in 2019 and scored a pathetic 36.45 overall mean percentage score (MPS). Near identical with the 36.71 MPS of our senior high pioneering batch the year before, the score means the graduates averaged less than four correct answers per 10 questions.
Secretary Leonor Briones helped promote the hoax when she used it to parry criticisms that our PISA debacle proves the K to 12 program is a failure. The story “‘Not a failure,’ Briones says of K-12 program amid low PISA PH results,” (PDI, December 10, 2019) quoted the official as having said: “Results show that those in senior high school performed so much better and significantly superior to those who are in junior high school of the same age.”
The statement not only showed Secretary Briones is unaware or is ignoring the very poor BEEA results but is also in denial of the fact that our junior high schoolers are convincingly beating our senior high school graduates in the NAT. The Grade 10 MPS in 2018 was 44.59 or 7.88 more than the debut MPS of the senior high students at 36.71 which is no fluke as the Grade 10 MPS average from 2013 to 2017 was 50.4.
Taken together, the DepEd PISA report and the pronouncement of Secretary Briones who did not even bother to show the connection between the alleged superior performance of the senior high school students with their curriculum promote the absurdity that only a year in senior high school could make a student outdo counterparts in the junior high to the tune of 80 points in the PISA but after he completes the two years, eats the dust of Grade 10 students in the NAT.
Also in magnifying the senior high school program at the expense of the junior high program, Secretary Briones unwittingly proved what she was trying to disprove which is that the K to 12 program is a failure because just like a chain, education systems could only be as strong as their weakest link.
Why Secretary Briones and the team behind the DepEd PISA report dwelt on a phenomenon which is on the way out was also strange. By virtue of the five year old enrolment cut off for Kindergarten set by DepEd Order No. 47, series of 2016, and reiterated in DepEd Order No. 020, series of 2018, we will no longer have senior high school students eligible for the PISA 2027 except for students who enrolled in Grade 1 at the cut off who are accelerated to the next grade within the school year.
In fact, the Grade 11 students who took the 2018 PISA were the 5-year olds who enrolled in Grade 1 in 2007 or in 2008 but were accelerated at least once in the case of the latter. In both cases, they are not the typical pupils because they were able to cope with the rigors of grade school at such a young age with some of them even managing to be accelerated indicating that their high scores were due to superior intellect and has little or nothing to do at all with the curriculum. This accounts for their very insignificant number during the 2018 PISA.
Clearly, led by Secretary Briones, the DepEd are desperately trying to window dress the disastrous K to 12 program to the point of playing up an irrelevant detail in the performance of our students in the 2018 PISA and brazenly using their PISA report to hard sell the sham. **
