Education Secretary Leonor Briones. Photo: Presidential photo ather than demand an apology from the World Bank, Education Secretary Leonor Briones should instead resign and admit her inability to raise the country's dismally low education standards. As we noted in a previous editorial, Philippine education is so woefully behind we are now an embarrassment to our Southeast Asian neighbors as well as to ourselves. There used to be a time when foreigners traveled to the Philippines to learn cutting-edge methods and practices unavailable in their home countries. Back then, we were ahead of the curve. Today, we're an academic backwater, stagnant and in a state of decay. So, why does the World Bank need to apologize for the deficiencies of our educational system? Does Briones believe they doctored the results? What exactly does the World Bank need to apologize for? If anyone should apologize, it is Briones herself for foolishly believing that her five-year tenure as DepEd secretary was anything other than a dismal failure. Her complaint also appears to take a page from the Chinese Communist Party's playbook, when she claimed that "the country was ashamed and insulted by the release of the education report," as Interaksyon notes in its online article. However, this overused argument is beginning to wear thin in democracies worldwide. A separate article in The Manila Bulletin has Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), Secretary-General Raymond Basilio saying that "instead of issuing snarky responses, we urge DepEd to address its constituents' valid calls for transparency..." Maybe, the next president will appoint a secretary of education who will take the education of Filipinos seriously and actually address the myriad problems that currently plague it. And not follow this secretary's practice of sticking her head in the sand and then demand a retraction from anyone who points out a problem. Published 7/7/2021 Postscript: On July 9, 2021, the World Bank acquiesced to the Duterte Administration's demand that it apologize for its earlier report. The Bank noted that "we deeply regret that the report on education was inadvertently published earlier than scheduled..." However, the World Bank made no retractions as to the accuracy or veracity of its original report.