The House of Representatives could still summon Vice President Sara Duterte in the upcoming budget hearings to demand an explanation concerning the "worsening" issues hounding the Department of Education (DepEd), which she headed for nearly two years.

Gabriela Partylist Rep. Arlene Brosas floated the proposal yesterday amid the controversial departure of Duterte from the Marcos' Cabinet as DepEd secretary and co-vice chair of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict.

"VP Sara Duterte is not yet safe in the upcoming national budget deliberations," Brosas said in vernacular.

"The poor performance of the Department of Education and the intensifying crisis in education under the current administration must be investigated," added Brosas, referring to the recent report of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), ranking Filipino students second to the last in creative thinking.

The Daily Tribune has reached out to Duterte's camp with regard to the issue but has yet to receive a response as of press time.

Duterte announced her "irrevocable" resignation as DepEd chief on the afternoon of 19 June, effective the same day, without further explanation.

She, however, maintained that her decision was "not born out of weakness."

Duterte's demission from the department coincided with the publication of PISA's global study in 2022, showing that the 15-year-old Filipino students lagged in creative thinking with a mean of 14 points, drastically distant from the average score of 33 set forth by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The country's neighbor, Singapore, landed in the top spot among 64 countries with 41 points.

PISA, developed by the OECD, is a periodic international comparative study that tests 15-year-olds’ ability to use their knowledge and skills in reading, mathematics, and science.

PISA said the creative thinking performance of the Philippines is lower than expected after accounting for performance in reading.

An earlier study by PISA released last year also revealed that Filipino learners are far behind their 15-year-old counterparts from most participating nations by five to six years in mathematics, science, and reading.

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With Duterte's departure from the DepEd, calls have been made to name a new "educator" to lead the country's largest bureaucracy.

Teachers’ Dignity Coalition has called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to ensure that the next DepEd secretary is not a politician or actively involved in partisan politics.

"This is to ensure that DepEd is spared from political bickering and being dragged into divisive political fighting," the group said.

Meanwhile, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda endorsed Prospero de Vera, who currently chairs the Commission on Higher Education, and Milwida “Nene” Guevara, head of the Synergeia Foundation, a non-governmental organization formed to improve basic education in the country.

Salceda highlighted De Vera's significant role in funding community colleges under the Universal Access to Quality Tertiary Education program, which “helped poor and underserved communities produce more college graduates than ever before.”

“That changed the landscape for basic education because most community colleges produce teachers," the economist-lawmaker said.

“Chair Popoy has also streamlined linkages between DepEd and CHEd in offering basic education programs.”

Moreover, Salceda cited De Vera's active participation in keeping proprietary private schools in operation at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, during which private schools were forced to close owing to a low number of enrollees.

"As many as 140,000 basic education students in private colleges for low-income communities would have been kicked out of the system without our tax reduction policies and the subsidies we pushed for," he reckoned.

Marcos has already accepted Duterte's resignation but has yet to name an officer-in-charge who will take over the latter once her 30-day notice ends on 19 July.