US donates P485M for PHL basic ed   

THE United States government will donate an additional P485 million to the Philippines to improve the country’s basic education programs, according to the US embassy in Manila.

In a statement on Thursday, the embassy said Washington’s Advancing Basic Education in the Philippines (ABC+) will total P2.6 billion following the additional donation.   

The education funding will benefit select areas in Metro Manila, Mimaropa, the Cordillera Administrative Region, and Soccsksargen, it said.   

“We are focusing on strengthening students’ foundational skills, especially for those students who are struggling with reading.  Just as with learning to read, we are taking a team approach — advancing step by step, word by word, teacher by teacher, student by student, to open possibilities for Filipino youth,” US Ambassador to the Philippines MaryKay L. Carlson said in the statement.

Filipino students were among the weakest globally in mathematics, reading, and science, based on the 2022 PISA. The Philippines ranked 77^th out of 81 countries, performing worse than the global average. — John Victor D. Ordoñez