Why is DepEd defending and continuing errors of the past?

by Pacifico Veremundo, 15 Jul 2021

Given the high correlation between reading literacy and achievement in other subjects, the finding contained in the controversial World Bank report on the state of Philippine education that one in every four Grade 5 students could not read like a Grade 2 or 3 (“80% of PH kids don’t know what they should know—World Bank,” 7/1/21) is the most damning finding of the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment (Pisa), 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the 2019 Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics (SEA-PLM), the three studies upon which the report was based.

Let me prove the point. In the 2018 Pisa, only two of the 15 top countries in Reading Literacy did not end up in the top 15 overall with the first five countries, namely China, Singapore, Macao, Hong Kong, and Estonia in the same order. On the other end, only two of the countries in the lowest 15 in Reading Literacy were not in the lowest 15 overall.

In this wise, I find the Grade 3 target for learning of reading provided in the Sulong EduKalidad, the Department of Education’s education reform package intended to address the learning gaps uncovered by the Pisa, practically useless against our extreme reading woes. First, it is a mere reiteration of the “no non-reader by Grade 4” target of the Every Child A Reader Program (ECARP), the existing flagship reading program of the DepEd, which has brought us to the dire straits we are in now. It makes our children eat the dust of their counterparts from other countries and our private schools because the latter are already reading at the end of Grade 1.

Worse, up to now, the DepEd has not shown any visible sign that it will finally apply the target. The aftermath of this paper’s exposé of the reading crisis in Bicol (“70,000 Bicol pupils can’t read—DepEd,” 2/17/20) February of last year would have been an opportune time to unveil the Sulong EduKalidad target grade to attain reading skills, but the DepEd officials who were all over the news trying to defend their agency by assailing the accuracy of the report never mentioned the matter. They never reminded the Bicol DepEd people that under the ECARP, they are not allowed to promote to Grade 4 learners who could not read.

The apparent insincerity on the part of DepEd to implement the reading target of the Sulong EduKalidad even at this early stage of the reform initiative—the Sulong EduKalidad was launched on Dec. 3, 2019—bodes badly for Philippine basic education, because the unwillingness and failure of the DepEd to stop children who could not read has led to the inundation of our elementary and high schools by illiterates and semi-illiterates and eventually doomed us in the three international assessments.

Whether DepEd and its allies in and out of the government admit it or not, no matter the reforms the country institutes, if our children read two or three grade levels behind or do not read at all, we will remain an international education basket case.

Secretary Leonor Briones is correct that the problem of education quality has historical context, but she should also accept that the Duterte administration, when it took over, was, as it still is, in a position to stop the bleeding—but it did not. In fact, the Duterte administration is now fiercely defending the errors of the past it has owned. The only thing new is that the current DepEd leadership shoots messengers.

Pacifico Veremundo,pveremundo@yahoo.com