THE PHILIPPINES is seeking a $150 million loan from the World Bank (WB) to improve the quality of public education amid a learning crisis.
The proposed loan will fund the Project for Learning Upgrade Support, which includes programs aimed at accelerating and restoring learning for 21.1 million students from grades K to 10, according to a loan document posted Nov. 4 on the state’s website World Bank has been uploaded.
The project will also seek to improve the measurement of education quality and strengthen the capacity of the education system.
The Department of Education (DepEd) will implement the project over a period of one year Fperiod of five years from 2025.
The World Bank is expected to review the loan proposal on April 1, 2025 and approve it on May 30, 2025.
“The most critical challenge facing the Philippine education system concerns the current low learning outcomes. About 91% of 10-year-olds in the Philippines cannot read and understand an age-appropriate text, a phenomenon known as learning poverty,” according to the World Bank, noting that this is much higher than in Indonesia (53%) and Thailand. (23%).
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) in 2022 found that Philippine students were among the weakest in the world in math, reading and science, ranking 77e from 81 countries and performs worse than the global average in all categories.
The National Achievement Test results also showed that 85-99% of Grade 10 students do not reach proFicient levels in core subjects such as Mathematics, English, Filipino, Science and Social Studies.
“Low learning outcomes can be traced to inadequate learning conditions, as measured by teacher capabilities, classroom environment and availability of learning materials,” the World Bank said.
Overcrowded classrooms, poor quality of teachers and low availability of textbooks were reported.
“Additional support is needed to address the apparent learning crisis facing the Philippine education system nationwide,” the report said.
The proposed project is aligned with DepEd’s 5-point agenda, which prioritizes investing in the quality of teachers, building classrooms and raising the quality of education.
Under the project, the DepEd will implement revised learning recovery programs, revise policies for teachers and provide technical assistance to teachers for the implementation of the so-called Matatag curriculum.
The Matatag curriculum covers kindergarten, grades 1, 4 and 7 and adds subjects to improve reading, math and life skills. It was rolled out this school year, with full implementation in the 2026-2027 school year.
Another part of the project includes promoting inclusive learning and teaching, by setting up an online teaching and learning center and developing accessible resources for students with disabilities.
The project also supports a review of national assessments of learning outcomes for grades 3 and 5 to ensure alignment with the Matatag curriculum and international standardized testing. It will also implement standardized computer-based reading assessments for students in grades K through 3.
“It would support the development and implementation of an assessment of social-emotional skills of lower secondary students, as well as the administration of PISA for Schools in a small number of selected public schools,” the report said.
The project will also support activities to “strengthen the capacity of the education system and promote decentralization,” such as reviewing regulatory frameworks, improving accountability and improving DepEd’s service delivery capacity.
The proposed project is in line with the World Bank Group’s Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for the Philippines for the period July 2019 to December 2023, which was extended by one year until 2024, the report said.
The Washington-based multilateral lender recently approved $1.25 billion in loans to support projects in the Philippines that aim to create safer and more resilient school infrastructure while strengthening economic recovery. — Aubrey Rose A. Inosante