Students more prepared for PISA according to DepEd

In the 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), fifteen-year-old students from the Philippines ranked 77th among 81 countries. The report highlighted the weaknesses of the Filipino participants in mathematics, reading, science, and creative thinking.

The Department of Education (DepEd) said it had prepared Filipino students better for the 2025 PISA in order to avoid the same results from 2022.

“Noong 2022 walang preparasyon, nagalit mga tao… [People were angry in 2022 because of the lack of preparedness…],” Education Secretary Juan Edgardo “Sonny” M. Angara told reporters in Filipino at the signing of the memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the department and the Special Olympics Pilipinas.

In a statement, DepEd said their preparations for this year’s PISA will serve as a ‘benchmark’ for future programs and other international large-scale assessments (ILSAs).

“We prepared new types of exam questions, we prepared for critical thinking. It’s not just math or science, we have combined the questions,” Mr. Angara said.

“We taught the students how to use laptops because in 2022 they did not know how to use them. They were rattled and did not finish the exam,” he added.

To further show preparedness, the department said the schools with logistical gaps in testing centers, laptops, and Internet access were given maintenance and augmentation funds. Teachers were also assessed through its education technology (edtech) partners Khan Academy Philippines and Frontlearners.

“Our goal here is a more robust and equitable testing environment,” Mr. Angara said in a press release. “We must learn from the gains of this exercise and scale it for future initiatives.”

The department completed the participation of around four million Filipino students for PISA 2025 on April 11 and will ‘welcome’ the results in September 2026. – Almira Louise S. Martinez