President Rodrigo Duterte has accepted the apology of the World Bank after its premature publication of a report on Filipino students’ academic abilities but said he wanted to see the actual and latest assessment of the students’ performance.
“I accept the apology. It’s a very good one. I said it’s a poignant one, direct to the point,” the President said after the WB issued an apology.
The WB apologized for publishing a report that showed that 80 percent of Filipino students do not possess the basic math and reading skills they should have based on their academic level.
In his public address, Duterte said the Department of Education (DepEd) is focusing on a new set of data that will be soon presented to the financial institution so that they can amend their statistics and data inputs.
In welcoming the World Bank’s apology for its report, the President said he hoped the organization would be more cautious in the future.
“I would not want to begrudge World Bank. But these international whatever bodies working on the problems of the world should be very careful in their statistics,” Duterte said.
“It is not good to, you know, commit a wrong internationally.”
The World Bank has published a study reflecting the low performance of Filipino students without giving DepEd the chance to provide inputs.
The report was based on three assessments the Philippines previously participated: the Program for International Student Assessment in 2018, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in 2019, and the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics also in 2019.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the report “insulted” and “shamed” the Philippines and she had requested the World Bank to issue an apology.