President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday welcomed the World Bank’s apology over the report on the state of student and learning outcomes in the Philippines, hoping the financial institutions would soon come up with a “more accurate” report.

“Well, I would not want to begrudge World Bank. But itong mga (these) international whatever bodies working on the problems of the world should be very careful in their statistics. It is not good to, you know, commit a wrong internationally. But good as any, we welcome their apology,” Duterte said during his regular Talk to the People.

Duterte said the Department of Education (DepEd) is working on a new set of data that will be soon submitted to the financial institution “so that they can correct their figures and data inputs.”

“I commend [DepEd] Secretary Leonor Briones for calling out the World Bank on this issue. I hope a more accurate report based on the latest data will be made,” Duterte said.

The World Bank has issued an apology over the weekend for publishing a report indicating the poor performance of Filipino students even before the DepEd had the chance to provide inputs.

Duterte said the DepEd could have correct the misconception and would provide more accurate data about Filipino students’ education performance.

“On that note and for the sake of the transparency and policy direction, we would like to know the latest assessment matrix of student performance and achievement, as well as the latest national data and figures in terms of learning outcomes, especially during the pandemic, so we can identify which gaps need to be addressed,” he said.

Meanwhile, Briones said it’s not appropriate to lay all the problems on education to Duterte’s administration.

Briones was also reacting to Vice President Leni Robredo’s recent remarks on the need to declare a crisis in education.

“I don’t know who should judge whether we have a crisis in education or not. Let say we have a crisis, then where does the crisis in education come from, after 123 years, 47 secretaries of education, after seven secretaries of education who refuse to participate in the international assessment,” she said.