He has also called for continued reforms to further extend the progress achieved.
On Tuesday, September 8, it was announced by Education Secretary Sonny Angara that the Philippines saw progress in the 2025 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which showed improvements in Reading, Mathematics, and Science.
The country scorred 373 in Science, 371 in Mathematics, and 367 in Reading. This performance pushed the country out of the bottom 10 countries across the three subjects that were tested as it ranked 77th out of 91 countries in Science, 74th out of 90 countries in Mathematics, and 72nd out of 90 countries in Reading.
In response, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. celebrated the Philippines’ improved performance and said in a video statement issued hours after that, “Tumaas tayo sa lahat ng bagay, sa Reading, sa Mathematics, sa Science. Iilan lang daw ang bansa na natamo ang ganong klaseng improvement na kagaya ng nakikita natin sa ating educational system.”
The Chief Executive said the results attest to the capabilities of the country’s students and teachers, while emphasizing the need to accompany the progress achieved with continued investment in schools.
“Kaya po ipagpapatuloy natin lahat ito; ipagpapatuloy natin lahat ng ating ginagawa. Nagsimula pa lang tayo magtayo ng classroom, nagsimula pa lang tayo nagpamigay, ng internet, ng mga computer, ng mga school supply, na nagpa-imprinta tayo ng mga libro. Nagsisimula pa lang tayo, ipapagpatuloy natin ito,” he emphasized.
For his part, Angara said that the improvement reflects the administration’s continued focus on education, as well as the support of Congress for the necessary resources to implement the reforms.
“Magandang senyales ito na may bunga ang ating mga ginagawa, pero hindi ito dahilan para magpahinga. Kailangan nating ipagpatuloy at palakasin ang mga repormang ito para mas marami pang batang Pilipino ang makinabang,” the Education chief added.
ONGOING INITIATIVES
According to the DepEd, it is now shifting its focus on maintaining momentum through reforms that address both learning outcomes and the conditions needed for students and teachers to succeed.
In a forum on Wednesday, September 9, Undersecretary for Learning Systems Carmela Oracion outlined ongoing initiatives in several areas such as curriculum modernization, workforce development, teacher welfare, child protection, classroom construction, digital access, learning recovery, and the use of education technology.
The list includes the Revised K–10 Curriculum and a strengthened Senior High School curriculum, which are both part of the measures to provide students with a more modern and future-ready education.
The DepEd is also strengthening its workforce, with 82,092 teachers and school heads having been promoted, with 135,063 more positions are proposed for promotion for FY 2027.
In terms of infrastructure, it also reported that the number of classrooms constructed reached 21,900 from July 2022 to June 2026. PHP49.8 billion was also allocated for classroom construction for FY 2026.
Digital access has also expanded, with 44,870 public schools now connected to the internet. There are also 140,430 laptops for teachers, 77,000 Smart TVs, and 8,266 e-Learning Cart packages, while 250,000 more devices will be provided pursuant to the President’s directive.
There is also progress in learning recovery efforts, with the number of grade-ready students increasing by 75 percent—from 3.3 million at the beginning of the school year to 5.8 million at the end of it.
Among the DepEd’s top priorities are strengthening teacher capacity, keeping schools safe, and ensuring that the curriculum remains relevant to the needs of students and a changing world.
PISA FOR SCHOOLS
Following its historic performance in the 2025 PISA, DepEd is also extending its benefits to schools through the rollout of PISA for Schools, which is an assessment service by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and provides school-level results that can be compared to international performance.
“We have to keep our momentum going after our best performance yet in PISA,” Angara stressed. “This [PISA for Schools] can help us understand more clearly what is happening inside our schools and where support is most needed.“
He also said thatbthe objective is to turn better data into better decisions for improvements in our national results to be felt by learners in the classroom.
Unlike the national PISA, which measures performance across countries, PISA for Schools provides comparable results at the school level while measuring the same core competencies of 15-year-old students in reading, mathematics, and science.
It is conducted digitally and is now also available in Tagalog, among other languages.
“PISA for Schools can help strengthen collaboration between the public and private sectors, allowing us to learn from each other and improve learning for every Filipino learner,” Undersecretary for Strategic Management Ron Mendoza explained, adding that this provides more flexible deployment between international assessment cycles,
The rollout will be implemented in phases. Phase I is being implemented this school year as a pilot, while Phase II is scheduled to be implemented from 2027 to 2032 to make it part of a broader system and expand the program, with the help of the World Bank.
It is also part of the DepEd’s broader reform agenda under Secretary Angara’s leadership, particularly in strengthening decentralization, public-private partnerships, and digitalization.
The initiative is also part of the broader Project for Learning Upgrade Support and Decentralization (PLUS-D), a DepEd-World Bank effort that includes system-level interventions, targeted interventions, and monitoring and evaluation.
Moreover, the Philippines joins a growing international community of educators using this assessment, including Brazil, India, Kazakhstan, Spain, Thailand, and the United States.
