EDITORIAL: Undeserved Bonuses

The Performance-Based Bonus (PBB) was designed to reward exemplary public service, yet its implementation in the Department of Education (DepEd) has defied both reason and accountability.

How can an agency, whose very mandate is to ensure literacy and quality education, continue to receive billions in incentives while failing at its most fundamental task—teaching children how to read?

In 2021, DepEd was granted ₱11.6 billion in PBB funds, despite a World Bank report revealing that 90% of Filipino 10-year-olds could not read and understand simple texts.

This staggering figure is a damning indictment of the system. Under the K-12 curriculum, students should achieve reading comprehension in English by Grade 3 and independent reading skills by Grade 4. Yet, with most 10-year-olds in Grade 5, the reality exposes a catastrophic failure in foundational education.

The decline in reading proficiency is not a sudden development—it has been evident for years. In 2018, when the Philippines ranked dead last in reading in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), DepEd still collected its performance bonus.

The results showed that 80% of Filipino students failed to meet even the minimum reading proficiency level, equivalent to a Grade 6 standard. How can DepEd justify receiving incentives for a job so poorly done?

In response to this crisis, Congress passed the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning Program Act, which aims to recruit additional educators and support staff to address the literacy gap. While this may provide some relief, it underscores DepEd’s inability to fulfill its responsibilities without external intervention.

The need for remedial programs proves that the department has strayed far from the educational standards achieved by its predecessors—when literacy was instilled as early as Grade 1 without the need for rescue programs.

The Administrative Order No. 25 Inter-Agency Task Force (AO 25 IATF), which oversees the implementation of the PBB, must rethink the criteria for granting these bonuses. The premise of performance-based incentives is to reward efficiency and excellence, not to pad the budgets of underperforming agencies.

If DepEd continues to receive billions in PBB despite abysmal results, the system is nothing more than a taxpayer-funded sham.

A department that routinely fails in its most basic mission should not be rewarded—it should be held accountable. Instead of funneling billions into undeserved bonuses, the government must prioritize genuine reforms that ensure Filipino children receive the quality education they deserve.

If DepEd wants to earn its incentives, it must first prove that it can teach a nation to read.