Education Secretary Leonor Briones said on Monday the World Bank should make a public apology over its report about the poor state of Filipino learners by using "old" data.

In an televised press briefing, Briones said since 2019, many have improved in the country's education system.

She said the Washington-based multilateral lending agency admitted that it used the 2019 Programme for International Student Assessment in coming out with the Philippine poor state of education.

"I want to emphasize, that the World Bank, which came out with these data, did not follow the protocol. Because if you're going to report about a country, such country should know what you're going to say...without any warning, they gave it first to the media," Briones said.

She also noted that World Bank, through its loans to the government, has been a partner of DepEd in reforming the education system in the country since 1981.

Briones said the World Bank did not include in its report the latest developmments in the country's education system.

"And since the country was insulted, was shamed and so on, we expect and look forward to a public apology, especially it's failure of not informing us that they came out with such old data," Briones said.

But she admitted that the lending agency sent her a letter, apologizing for what happened.

Asked if DepEd will pursue the two loans for education - the $110 million for teaching effectiveness and $100 million for Alternative Learning System, respectively - Briones said it is the economic team, which has been directly negotiating with the lending institution.

"So, it will depend on the economic team because they are the ones negotiating on that," she said. Celerina Monte/DMS