Sara Duterte's education rant triggers reminders of her DepEd 'failures'

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Sara Duterte's complaints that Philippine schools remain "stuck with paper and pencil" have drawn sharp rebuke from officials who say she failed to address the very problems she now criticizes when she was Department of Education secretary.

Speaking to Filipinos in Kuwait on August 15, Duterte criticized the slow pace of modernization in Philippine education, while other countries have supposedly advanced to robotics and coding. She also expressed the familiar frustration with Filipino students' poor literacy compared to other countries.

"Other countries are very modern. But us, we're still stuck with paper and pencil," Duterte said. "Three years old, four years old, they already know how to read. Here in our country... up to high school, the child still doesn't know how to read."

But Malacañang on Wednesday, August 20, responded to Duterte with a reminder that she had nearly two years as DepEd secretary, from 2022 to June 2024, to address her qualms in the school system.

Duterte's criticism now "only reflects that as DepEd Secretary, she was a complete failure," Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said. 

Long-standing crisis

The issues Duterte brought up in her speech — outdated teaching methods, stagnant curriculum, poor literacy rates, and DepEd's slow modernization — are chronic problems in education that have persisted across multiple administrations. Most predate her term as DepEd secretary, the position she was appointed to by her former ally and running mate, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

But it was also under Duterte's tenure that DepEd fell short on several fronts, particularly with addressing classroom shortages and delivering on DepEd's much-vaunted laptop and tech distribution program. 

DepEd under Duterte completed just 192 of its 6,379 new classroom target in 2023, or about 3%, according to the Commission on Audit. That year was her first and only full year as DepEd chief. 

State auditors said the failure was partly due to design changes and realignments. At the time of audit, 4,391 classrooms were still under construction, while work on 550 projects — or 8% of the target — had yet to begin because procurement was still ongoing. DepEd also managed to repair only 208 of 7,550 classrooms scheduled for rehabilitation. More than 5,200 projects had not even entered procurement.

Duterte's DepEd leadership also drew scrutiny for the poor execution of the DepEd Computerization Program. 

During a House budget deliberation last year, lawmakers noted that in 2023, the department at the time recorded “zero percent” accomplishment in delivering thousands of teaching and learning equipment. 

Specifically, this includes more than 12,000 laptops for teachers, 7,500 laptops for non-teaching staff, and thousands of e-learning carts and smart TVs. 

Duterte also drew widespread criticism for her request for and use of confidential funds under the DepEd budget while presiding over a learning crisis. 

When she resigned as DepEd secretary in June 2024, Duterte was upfront that there were major DepEd projects and initiatives that she was not able to see to completion due to her relatively short term. 

Duterte said, at the time, that she would have wanted to "finish whatever deliverables the Marcos administration had for the Department of Education." She said she wanted Angara to make the review of the senior high school curriculum a priority. 

On Wednesday, Castro argued that Duterte had no standing to complain about problems she left unresolved.

"She was given the opportunity, she was trusted by the president, from 2022 to 2024 to be DepEd secretary. Almost two years that she should have worked — whatever she is complaining about, she should have accomplished it during her time," Castro said in mixed English and Filipino.

It is Duterte's predecessor, Education Secretary Sonny Angara, who is now "cleaning up the mess that was left behind," including the distribution of at least 1.5 million gadgets and materials that had been stuck in warehouses since 2020, Castro said. 

'Worst DepEd secretary ever'

Rep. Antonio Tinio (ACT Teachers)'s criticism for Duterte was even more scathing, calling her "the worst DepEd secretary ever."

“VP Duterte even failed to deliver even a tiny fraction of what was expected of her during her tenure as Education Secretary. Walang karapatan magreklamo ang taong hindi nagtrabaho," the lawmaker said.

Among others, Tinio assailed Duterte for DepEd's weak implementation of its school-based feeding program under her leadership, which he said reached only a "48%" implementation, while billions of funds were unutilized.

"Children who are hungry and have no books, how will they learn robotics and coding?" the lawmaker asked.

"She speaks of high school students who cannot read, but conveniently ignores that this learning crisis worsened under her leadership. The UNICEF statistics she cites are an indictment of her own performance, not just the educational system," he added.