Education Comparisons for the Philippines

There have been many posts or comments on how Good, or Bad, the quality of Philippines Education is.

Some locals say it is good, some expats say it is bad.

An International Organisation does Tests every few years around the world, and provides realistic comparisons.

Many US, UK and Australians will have seen the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) results when moving between those countries. 
The Philippines has not been included in this testing since 2003, but some of the results for that year are shown below:

TIMSS 2003 Tables  (Top and Bottom 5 countries + USA and Aus)

Average mathematics scale scores of eighth-grade students, by country: 2003       
       
Rank    Average    Country
1    605    Singapore
2    589    Korea, Republic of
3    586    Hong Kong SAR
4    585    Chinese Taipei
5    570    Japan
--    466    International average
41    378    Philippines
42    366    Botswana
43    332    Saudi Arabia
44    276    Ghana
45    264    South Africa
       
14    505    Australia
15    504    United States
       
Full Report
http://nces.ed.gov/timss/TIMSS03Tables. … p;Figure=5

2003 is 12 years ago so the results are likely way off.  Could be better or worse.  I wish there's something more recent. 

My kids aged 5, 7 and 9 studied in North America and as parents, we found their lessons here more advanced and they are more pressured to perform well than their peers back home.  I'm not sure if this is just from the school they go to as I don't know if all the country's private educational institutions follow the same lessons, textbooks and guidelines.

I have a daughter educated in Australia, Nieces and Nephew in both UK and Philippines.

I found that the ones in the Philippines were pressured to perform better than the others, but with a parent working at De La Salle, they were in a good education. 
Similar aged youngsters, all about 18-20 now, but in the Philippines and in the normal "free" schooling, have much more difficulty, with poor mathematics skills especially being seen, and no real English skill.

From the results from the basic free education for each of these, I would put Australia first and Philippines last.

But..  If you can afford something like De La Salle, then my opinion is that it is better than the FREE Aus or UK education, assuming you have a parent at home prepared to push and ensure all homework is done too.

BUT... It is no guarantee.  My own ex wife was Educated properly in the Philippines, with her mother being an English teacher, and she ended up with a BA in English (a 4-year degree program).  But she needed a few months course in English to fit in, in Australia,
Even after 21 years she often blamed the English language as being the cause of misunderstandings.;)

I forgot to add these in my previous post.  My observations are based on a private school using textbook out of Singapore.  Public education standards are nowhere near an average private school.  Sad but true.   Just a few weeks ago, I read an article lambasting the quality of textbooks approved by so-called experts for use in schools.  Apparently this has been an ongoing problem for years.