A call to review statistics education in the Philippines

In the senior high school program, there are two core subjects that are related to mathematics, namely general mathematics, and statistics and probability, or what we tend to call “elementary statistics” in college. The latter subject is important since it is considered a prerequisite for research subjects in senior high school.

Despite its importance, however, the said subject is poorly prepared and managed. Even the Philippine Statistical Association Inc. (PSAI) criticized the Department of Education (DepEd) for poorly preparing the syllabus of the said subject without consultation from statisticians. I mean, why is it that Filipinos tend to misunderstand statistics such as in the case of the recent Philippine elections, where so-called “surveys” were simply given through social media without any appropriate methods? Yet, some people still thought that they were valid and reliable.

As a student of formal science of which mathematics and statistics are part, I urge not only the DepEd but also the Commission on Higher Education to review statistics education if they want our country to be research-oriented. It should highlight that statistics is not a branch of mathematics, but a science that mainly deals with uncertainty. Besides, our learning and teaching methods in at least elementary statistics, according to PSAI, tend to not only utilize a cookbook approach but also a primitive one wherein utilization of modern computer technology and software is less important despite living in this current age of technology.

Ronald G. de Guzman Jr.,

University of the Philippines Baguio