EDITORIAL— PISA: Wide room for improvement

The government had a piece of good news to report this week: for the first time, 15-year-old Filipino students posted improvements in the Program for International Student Assessment.

PISA 2025, administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, showed the mean scores of participating Filipino 15-year-olds rising by 17 points in science, 16 points in mathematics and 20 points in reading.

These are the highest scores obtained by the Philippines since joining PISA in 2018, according to Education Secretary Sonny Angara.

Improvements are always welcome. However, the scores were still below the OECD averages in science, math and reading comprehension.

And while the Philippines is no longer at the bottom among the PISA participants, the country still ranked 76th out of 90 participating states and economies in science, 73rd out of 89 in mathematics and 71st out of 89 in reading.

Compared with eight Southeast Asian neighbors, the Philippines also remained a laggard, ranking last in science and sixth in both math and reading. Singapore led the region in all three areas, with Vietnam and Brunei placing second and third, respectively, in both science and mathematics. In reading, Brunei was behind Singapore, followed by Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. In science, Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia were also ahead of the Philippines.

Overall, students from Singapore and China were the top performers in the PISA along with those from Estonia, Japan, South Korea, Macao, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.

Across the three core subjects, the high-performing regional economic and regional hubs of China – Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang – topped the tests.

The OECD acknowledged efforts to improve the Philippine education system while pointing out that higher performers in East Asia set high expectations for all students, “with rigorous and focused instruction environments.”

Part of improving the learning environment is by making teaching “one of the most attractive careers,” an official of the OECD noted.

The Philippines currently faces serious problems of bullying and extremist armed violence in schools involving minor students.

Bullying has been cited as one of the reasons for the country’s poor PISA performance. This is on top of the long-standing problems in the education sector, from early childhood stunting and malnourishment to shortages in classrooms, teachers and funding.

The improvement in the country’s PISA performance should encourage all stakeholders to intensify efforts to address these problems. There’s light at the end of the tunnel, but there’s still a long stretch of tunnel ahead.