In 2018, the IMD World Competitiveness Center’s director, Arturo Bris told

the media that the Philippines’ labourforce is not as equipped with skills that
firms are looking for.

The research arm of Switzerland-based business school, the International Institute for Management
Development (IMD) recently released the results of its survey on the talent competitiveness of 63
countries from around the world. Based on the rankings, the Philippines managed to jump up to 49th
place from 55th last year.

Three Main Factors

by World Talent Ranking

•The Investment and Development Factor - which measures resources used to cultivate homegrown
human capital
•The Appeal Factor - which evaluates the extent to which a country attracts and retains foreign and local
talent
•The Readiness Factor - which looks at the quality of skills and competencies of a country’s labor force.

QUALITY EDUCATION
QUALITY EDUCATION
by Philippine Business for Education (PBEd)
FACTORS: RECOMMENDATIONS:

- Prevalence of malnutrition - Focus on learning by starting early

- Shortage of appropriate learning tools - Monitoring learning

- Many college graduates are not work- - Raising accountability and aligning actors
ready due to a lack of socio-emotional
- Participate consistently in international
.
skills learning assessments to make Filipino
learners and graduates globally competitive.

Poor quality of education has resulted in low proficiency level among students:

REASONS:

- Low government budget for education

- Poor quality of teachers

- Poor management of schools

- Poor learning environment

- Content of Curriculum

Crisis In Education
Toti Chikiamco of the Foundation for Economic Freedom observed that the problem is complex:

– from lack of school materials

- poor school curriculum,
- overcrowding
- poorly written textbooks
- malnutrition

Filipino children spend less time acquiring basic skills in literacy, numeracy, and communication than
their Asian counterparts.

A World Bank report said learning poverty was already at 90.9 percent in the Philippines pre-pandemic.
It also noted “the share of children at the end of primary (elementary), who read below the minimum
proficiency level,” was also a high of 90.4 percent.

Malnutrition is a leading cause of our students’ underperformance. If they go to school hungry, they will
lack the concentration and energy to study and absorb.
Nutrition should be part of the solution to the country’s educational crisis. The solution would range
from school or even pre-school feeding programs, to programs to make food more affordable to the
poor."

Big problem with the curriculum.

Our legislators love to add subjects and effectively crowd out more important subjects like math,
science, and reading.There is a need to refine the curriculum for kindergarten to grade 3 learners.
 Partnership with the private sector is needed to solve our educational crisis.

New Normal Crisis

In the Philippines, the number of out-of-school youth rose at the onset of the
pandemic from 16.9 percent in January 2020 to 25.2 percent three months later
in April 2020, based on a study released by the US Agency for International
Development in November 2021.

There were at least 1.1 million students who did not enroll for school year 2020 to
2021 due to lack of internet access, technology, lack of parental guidance and
working students.
References:

https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2022/5/20/PIDS-PH-improve-quality-of-
education.html

https://www.philstar.com/business/2022/07/04/2192779/crisis-education

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1577764/unicef-many-children-drop-out-as-in-
person-classes-reopen

The Philippine government should focus on improving the quality of education and training in the
country, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) said.

PIDS president Aniceto Orbeta Jr. made the statement during a recent forum organized by PIDS and the
Socioeconomic Research Portal for the Philippines Network.

To achieve this, he underscored the importance of generating, reporting, and discussing data on
education quality and performance in formulating related policies and plans.

“We should not be afraid of looking at the outcome of our exam scores because these will tell us how
much we have learned,” Orbeta was quoted in a statement.
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The country should face its education problems “squarely” and seek help from different stakeholders
because “test scores are a problem of both schools and households,” he said.

Moreover, the contribution of the private sector should also be maximized, he added.

In 2021, a World Bank report said 80% of Filipino children "do not know what they should know.”

According to three global assessments, only 10% to 22% of Grades 4, 5, and 9 students scored “at or
above minimum proficiency,” it said.

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The report had been taken down after Education Secretary Leonor Briones demanded for an apology for
its “outdated and insulting” report on the country's educational situation.

Meanwhile, Orbeta also said the country’s education sector should continue adapting to flexible learning
amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

However, interaction between teachers and students must be improved and the sector should be more
strategic in using technology, he emphasized.
“In basic education, or maybe in [technical and vocational education and training] as well, we see that
online [learning] does not work because most of our students are [still reliant] on paper-based learning,”
Orbeta said.

“Online [learning] will only serve the richer ones who have [internet] access at home but not most of our
public schools,” he pointed out.

Orbeta said the interaction issue can be addressed by providing load assistance to teachers so they can
talk and interact more with their students as they go through their paper module.

On equity issues, the government can solve this with policies targeted at the poor, he also said.

The culture of research and development, and innovation in the country should also be developed,
Orbeta added.

It is just as well that the Vice President is also the Secretary of Education. Not that she has any
experience or background in education, but if she listens to the right experts, public education in our
country should benefit.

A World Bank report said learning poverty was already at 90.9 percent in the Philippines pre-pandemic.
It also noted “the share of children at the end of primary (elementary), who read below the minimum
proficiency level,” was also a high of 90.4 percent.

The 2018 PISA report showed that in reading, 39 percent of private school students were above
minimum proficiency level, compared to only 21 percent of those from public schools. In math, private
school students were 35 percent above minimum proficiency level versus 15 percent for public schools.

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So, whether from public or private schools, our performance is nationally embarrassing and worrisome.
Toti Chikiamco of the Foundation for Economic Freedom observed that “the problem is complex – from
lack of school materials, poor school curriculum, overcrowding, and poorly written textbooks, to
malnutrition.”

But since the performance of the private school sector is somewhat better, Toti suggests the
government should consider public-private partnerships in education.

“One way is to expand the Assistance and Subsidies to Education Act (RA 8545). Surveys also show that
parents prefer to make the choice of which school their children go to, rather than being forced to
attend a poorly performing public school.”

As I have often cited in this column, poor nutrition is a big reason why our children can’t learn.

According to Toti, agricultural economist Dr. Karlo Adriano says that there’s a clear association between
protein intake and performance in the PISA tests, i.e., the lower the protein consumption, the lower the
test scores in PISA.

“In other words, malnutrition is a leading cause of our students’ underperformance. If they go to school
hungry, they will lack the concentration and energy to study and absorb.

“Clearly, nutrition should be part of the solution to the country’s educational crisis. The solution would
range from school or even pre-school feeding programs, to programs to make food more affordable to
the poor.”

Then too, there is a big problem with the curriculum. Our legislators love to add subjects and effectively
crowd out more important subjects like math, science, and reading.
Sen. Win Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, said the curriculum is
overcrowded and needs decongestion. For a start, Sen. Win said there is a need to refine the curriculum
for kindergarten to grade 3 learners.

Our poorly-designed curriculum was one problem cited by one study:

“The amount of time allotted for teaching social studies in the Philippines, under the term makabayan, is
disproportionately high compared with those in other countries (300 minutes per week in grades 1 to 3).

“Social studies is not taught in Brunei Darussalam and Malaysia until grade 4, while Singapore offers it
for only 30 minutes per week. Starting from grade 4, under humanities, 60 minutes per week is allocated
by Malaysia and 90 minutes per week by Brunei Darussalam and Singapore.”

In other words, Toti pointed out, Filipino children spend less time acquiring basic skills in literacy,
numeracy, and communication than their Asian counterparts.

The weird thing is that even with so much time devoted to the makabayan subjects, our young people
are as ignorant of basic Philippine history compared to our generation.

Remember how after watching a historical movie, some young people wondered on Facebook why
Mabini didn’t stand up, didn’t walk, but remained seated through the entire film. Didn’t their teacher
tell them Mabini was called the Sublime Paralytic? Remember Gomburza? They are also unaware of the
martyred priests.

We have thrown money into the problems the past years. Even salaries of teachers were raised, as
befits a noble profession. But do we really have enough competent teachers, specially in math, science,
and reading?

My youngest sister who lives in Los Angeles decided to take a basic math course in her community
college after she retired. She hated math and she wanted to know if she was justified.
She got a good math teacher who started her from the beginning. Now she understands the logic of
math and loves it. She concludes her math teachers here in the Philippines didn’t teach it the way it
should be taught.

That’s what my daughter who teaches in grade school in Orange County also told me. The way they
teach it is so different, and maybe that’s what makes other countries score better in international tests.
That’s something we should look into.

Our educational problems are daunting, Toti observed, and the government can’t do it by itself. That’s
why a partnership with the private sector is needed to solve our educational crisis.

Students can be given vouchers to study in private schools at a predetermined tuition rate. The really
good students who will otherwise be stymied by the public school system can blossom and use their
education as a ticket out of poverty.

I remember once writing about Ayala Foundation’s Centex (Center for Excellence in Public Elementary
Education) program. It is a good concept… provide quality teaching at the beginning of a child’s
education.

Bright children from poor families are given an opportunity to excel. The program started with two
schools in Tondo and Batangas. It will be interesting to know what happened to their early pupils.

The Centex website is not updated, but as of 2019, they reported: 144 public school teachers trained
and mentored; 100 percent promotion rate; zero dropout rate (v. 1.6 percent national average); 98
percent cohort survival rate (v. 97.4 percent national average); 90 percent teacher proficiency rating;
1156 total enrolment for SY 2019-2020.

To address our present crisis in the spirit of private sector and government partnership, can’t Ayala put
up more Centex schools nationwide or where they have projects? Can’t we have the top 100
corporations sponsor at least two Centex schools as part of their CSR?
This could be the best investment our corporate sector could make for the nation’s future. It is like
paying taxes except you know for sure it is spent w

The research arm of Switzerland-based business school, the International Institute for Management
Development (IMD) recently released the results of its survey on the talent competitiveness of 63
countries from around the world. Based on the rankings, the Philippines managed to jump up to 49th
place from 55th last year.

Regardless of the jump, the ASEAN country, unfortunately, still performed the worst when compared to
other bloc members. In order to understand how this happened, it’s important to look at what the study
uses for its indicators.

The World Talent Ranking looks at three main factors when determining how to rank a country. The
investment and development factor, which measures resources used to cultivate homegrown human
capital; the appeal factor, which evaluates the extent to which a country attracts and retains foreign and
local talent; and the readiness factor, which looks at the quality of skills and competencies of a country’s
labour force.

While a simple example of the investment and development factor would be whether a country is able
to provide education to its citizens, the readiness factor seems to indicate that it is also important to
look at the quality of the education provided. This, according to the study, is where countries like the
Philippines fall short.

Quality of education

For the three factors, the Philippines scored 31st for appeal, 61st for investment and development, and
26th for readiness. Similarly, last year, the Philippines scored lowest for investment and development.

ASEAN talent ranking 2019

Source: International Institute for Management Development

In 2018, the IMD World Competitiveness Center’s director, Arturo Bris told the media that the
Philippines’ labour force is not as equipped with skills that firms are looking for.

He acknowledged that it was true that the Philippines was making progress in managing its talent pool
and is, in fact, one of only two countries in Southeast Asia along with Malaysia which has improved
government investment in education as a percent of gross domestic product (GDP).

“However, in 2018, The Philippines witnessed a deterioration of its ability to provide the economy with
the skills needed, which points to a mismatch between school curriculums and the demands of
companies,” he said.

But it isn’t just a Swiss business school that thinks the Philippines needs to improve its quality of
education. In June last year, local media reported the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) as saying
that while the state of education nationwide has progressed in terms of accessibility, it still has a long
way to go when it comes to delivery of quality learning for the success of every learner.

PBEd executive director, Love Basillote said this can be attributed to many factors such as prevalence of
malnutrition and a shortage of appropriate learning tools, adding that many college graduates are not
work-ready due to a lack of socio-emotional skills.

“Our recommendation is we focus on learning by starting early, monitoring learning, raising

accountability and aligning actors,” she said, also suggesting that the country participate consistently in
international learning assessments to make Filipino learners and graduates globally competitive.

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The World Talent Ranking 2018 cited the country’s top weaknesses in the areas of total public
expenditure on education, pupil-teacher ratio in primary and secondary schools, and remuneration in
service professions and labour force growth.
Upgrading digital skills

The World Economic Forum (WEF) head of Asia Pacific and Member of the Executive Committee, Justin
Wood noted that Industry 4.0, also known as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, was unfolding at
accelerating speed and changing the skills that workers will need for the jobs of the future.

On 19 November last year, a coalition of major technology companies pledged to develop digital skills
for the ASEAN workforce. Being part of the WEF’s Digital ASEAN initiative, the pledge aims to train some
20 million people in Southeast Asia by 2020, especially those working in small and medium-size
enterprises (SMEs).

The move is most welcomed especially due to the threat of huge job displacement across the region.
Now, following results from the World Talent Ranking, it seems that this initiative would be much
needed in the Philippines as well.

However, the Philippines must understand that the pledge will only go so far in ensuring that it has the
right workforce for the new skills demands of companies. Improving the quality of education in the
country is still critical and as 2019’s results highlight, the Philippines needs to continue working on this.