The Department of Education (DepEd) has entered into a memorandum of agreement with Khan Academy Philippines to utilize their applications and technologies to improve Filipino students' proficiency in subjects, especially math. Khan Academy, a U.S.-based non-profit educational organization, provides practical exercises, instructional videos, and personalized learning dashboards, allowing learners to study at their own pace.
By “Filipinizing” the course content and aligning it with DepEd’s official curriculum, the program aims to “build foundational skills of learners including literacy and numeracy skills and strengthen Reading, Science, and Mathematics programs through improvement learning materials”.
Khan Academy Philippines President and CEO Atty. Geraldine Acuña-Sunshine is confident that the program will enhance Filipino students' performance in international assessments. The 2022 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) results revealed that 15-year-old Filipino students fell behind their peers from other countries in math, science, reading, and creative thinking.
“The rationale for Khan Academy Philippines and really for any ed-tech tool is to strengthen basic ed, and that means our foundational skills in math, science, reading and critical thinking and to do well in tests like PISA”, Atty. Acuña-Sunshine said. “Definitely makakatulong ito sa PISA natin if not 2025 baka 2029 dahil nakabase siya doon sa learner eh, so kung mahina ang learner, marami siyang makukuha doon sa software”, Education Secretary Sonny Angara for his part said.
Due to limited resources of some schools, DepEd said it would come up with a “strategic deployment” plan for the implementation of the program. “Rather operate on the assumption of one student- one computer, maybe work with one classroom muna, one teacher. Start there and go improve your ratios as we go along”, Angara said. “Ang importante we have a good spread across the country doon sa makikinabang dito”, he added. Khan Academy Philippines targets to reach one million Filipino students by 2026.
