By Elijah Espiritu
With the Philippines' decade-long struggle with low academic performance in math and science, it is crucial to implement strategies to improve these outcomes. It has been a consistent and observed trend for the country to score poorly on the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), placing the Philippines below the global academic average.
The Department of Science and Technology - Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) developed Coursewares designed to integrate inside the curriculum and classroom settings established by the Department of Education in order to curb the continuous academic decline. These supplementary materials aim to bridge the gap of accessibility to quality materials in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
The courseware is a readily-available interactive classroom software application designed for both K-12 students and teachers. The software contains interactive multimedia materials aiding to deepen the understanding of complex mathematical and scientific concepts.
Eliminating academic challenges
In the 2022 PISA assessment, the Philippines placed 77th out of 81 participating countries. The country recorded an average score of 356 points in science and 355 points in mathematics, both way below the global average. Despite minor improvements from previous years, these results highlight ongoing significant challenges in the education system's ability to meet international standards in these critical areas.
PISA 2022 Worldwide Ranking: https://factsmaps.com/pisa-2022-worldwide-ranking-average-score-of-mathematics-science-and-reading-2/
The courseware underwent multiple validations and revisions to ensure utmost quality of the materials before implementation, creating a more viable mitigating tool for the below average academic ranking. The DOST-SEI courseware team, under the leadership of Josephine Feliciano, highlighted the level of content quality their courseware has to offer.
“Our education technologies follow the Software Development Cycle where Quality Control and Assurance is conducted through reviews of the modules from Alpha to Charlie Version before deployment.”
Josephine Feliciano
On the quality assurance of DOST coursewares
This project is not only designed as a supplementary, but also as a stand-alone offline educational tool that allow the users to operate the software independently and gain mastery of the lessons. In its current stage, the software is nearing completion of its online package for distribution to off-grid areas and schools.
Stirring the future: What’s next for DOST’s coursewares
Despite being an online learning platform, the project still faces challenges in logistics and distribution of their innovations and softwares to particular stakeholders. Feliciano said that partnerships with providers, institutions, government, and non-government organizations would help bolster their distribution to help reach even more people.
Opening the doors for potential international linkages, DOST-SEI’s courseware is one of the country’s representatives at the National Science and Technology Fair in Thailand.
Feliciano expressed excitement for the upcoming opportunity to collaborate and benchmark their innovation on the international stage. She added that their team aims to leverage this showcase by contributing to the global educational pool in the STEM fields.
“DOST’s goal is [to] have our technologies reach not just the last mile beneficiaries in the country but to be at par with international quality standards.”
Josephine Feliciano
On the continuous development of DOST coursewares
DOST’s courseware aims to implement multilingual features for the Philippines for a more universal local application, ensuring efficiency in information dissemination with the future possibility of trans-language features to cater to other countries as well.
** This article is part of the "SPICE: Science and Technology Promotion for International Contest and Exhibits" campaign for the National Science and Technology (NST) Fair Thailand 2024. For more information and event updates, visit the DOST-TAPI website at www.tapi.dost.gov.ph.**
