Danniell Domingo

The Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sonny Angara seeks to send Filipino students abroad through scholarships to improve education quality and address concerns from recent findings that only top students have access to special science programs, during a OneNews interview on Oct. 24.

Photo Courtesy of Philippine Star.

Angara said that the government is working to respond to the latest findings of Second Congressional Commission on Education (EDCOM 2), which bared that only 1.03% of the country’s “best and brightest” students are enrolled in special science programs or science high schools.

“I think now the move is towards enhancing quality and tama yung EDCOM, we only have 1%. So we need to up our game,” Angara added.

The education secretary stressed that the government has struggled so long with improving access to education that quality is overlooked.

One solution that Angara aims to implement is sending talented students abroad with government support, citing the success of Singapore with educational programs.

“We need to up our game in that respect and maybe even send kids abroad because that's what a lot of our neighbors are doing. If you look at Singapore for instance, many of the government ministers were all government scholars,” he said.

By sending students abroad, Angara said it would provide them with a new perspective and teach them independence.

Angara cited a similar program from the past, the Pensionado program, which sent about 500 Filipino students aged 16 to 21 to the United Stated for a government-sponsored study during 1903 to 1943.

“We had a program like that called the Pensionados for government scholars, but we kind of forgot about it,” he said. 

In 2019, Angara filed the Senate Bill 961 or the proposed Pensionado Act, which allows ‘deserving high school graduates’ to study abroad.

New findings from the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed that Filipino students continue to be part of the world’s weakest performers in math, reading, and science.

The next PISA test is scheduled for 2025, and DepEd is working on it by having students in the special science program practice taking PISA-like questions.