The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said Wednesday that Filipino students have a low performance in mathematics because they are good at memorization but lack the skills to apply their knowledge.

Andreas Schleicher, Director for Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General of the OECD said this during a hearing held by the Senate Committee on Basic Education on the analysis of the country’s 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results.

“The performance of students in Reading, Mathematics, and Science is still very modest,” Schleicher told lawmakers, citing data from the OECD.

“The reason why we see relatively low performance of the Philippine students is that they are often good in reproducing what they have learned. They memorize and reproduce mathematical formulas and equations but students in the Philippines do not have strong strengths to apply what they know, particularly in unfamiliar settings,” he said.

“In today’s world that is increasingly important. In a time of ChatGPT, the world no longer rewards you for reproducing answers, it requires you to ask the right questions. To question the established wisdom of our times. And it’s very clear from the data that this is what is very difficult for students in the Philippines,” he added.

Schleicher noted that the country’s rank in PISA remained the same, unlike most countries who participated in the assessment.

“On the positive side, the Philippines held its crown during the pandemic. Most countries have seen a quite significant decline when it comes to learning outcomes,” Schleicher said.

“I think that is the strength of the system that it was able to resist the pandemic but still the performance of students is quite low in terms of international standards,” he added.

Schleicher said that when it comes to psychological well-being, Filipino students showed a “strong kind of self-confidence” and were generally happy with their life and their school.

Schleicher added that Filipino students were shown to have low resilience due to their learning environment.

“Students in the Philippines often grow up with a fixed mindset, believing that their success is dependent on the intelligence they were born with rather than the effort, their investment in education,” he said.

“That is something that comes down to the learning environments, to the teaching profession. That mindset is something conveyed to you by the environment and I think that is something to think about,” he added.

According to Schleicher, Filipino students have limited engagement with their schools.

“Their quality of social relationships is not so strong. Teachers in the Philippines see themselves, according to the PISA results, mainly as people who convey knowledge. But there’s limited engagement for you know, who their students are, who they want to become. The kind of mentoring and coaching functions of teachers is not as well-developed as in most other countries,” he said.

Schleicher also noted that Filipino students have low material environments for education, but said it was to be expected since it “ just reflects the broader economic context of the Philippines”.

The OECD conducts the PISA which tests the performance of 15-year-old students from 81 countries in mathematics, reading, and science. Jaspearl Tan/DMS