Two recent studies on Philippine education, one looking at the broader education system and another focusing specifically on public relations education, arrive at a strikingly similar conclusion: the country is preparing learners for a world that is changing faster than the education system can keep up.

The first is the 2026 State of Philippine Education by the Philippine Business for Education (PBEd). The second is The Praxis Paradox: A Structural Audit of the Mismatch between Academic Foundations and Professional Public Relations Practices in the Philippines, presented by the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP) and The Marketing Lab under the San Beda Junior Marketing Association, in collaboration with its Department of Marketing Management.

Although they examine education from different perspectives, both point to two challenges that can no longer be ignored: a widening gap between the skills students acquire and those employers need, and an emerging AI divide that risks making existing educational inequalities even worse.

Skills Mismatch Begins Long Before Employment

PBEd’s report frames the problem directly as a “job-skills mismatch.” Its workforce development section notes that while the number of graduates is increasing, their skills do not necessarily align with what employers need. The report’s data on underemployed Filipinos show substantial numbers across senior high school and college graduates.

The problem is not simply that graduates lack diplomas. It is that education credentials do not automatically translate into workplace readiness.

The report’s broader findings help explain why. Philippine learners continue to struggle with foundational competencies, critical thinking and problem-solving. The report notes that three in four Filipino 15-year-olds failed to reach the lowest proficiency level in creative problem-solving, while fewer than 4% reached advanced problem-solving levels.

The same problem appears in a much more specific form in public relations education.

The PRSP and San Beda identify an industry disconnect in PR education. Public relations is increasingly a multidisciplinary profession requiring expertise in data analysis, strategy, sociology and crisis management, not simply writing stories or placing advertisements. Yet PR education remains fragmented, with very few universities offering PR as a standalone degree program.

The result is what the study calls a “train and lose” cycle, where PR agencies effectively become the training grounds, teaching new hires fundamental strategies that they should ideally have acquired before entering the profession.

In other words, the broader education system has a skills mismatch, and PR education has its own version of that mismatch.

AI Could Widen The Gap Instead Of Closing It

The second point of convergence is even more urgent.

AI is often presented as an opportunity to democratize learning and productivity. But PBEd warns that the opposite can happen if access to technology remains unequal.

Its report identifies a “widening AI divide,” with generative AI potentially increasing the advantage of students in affluent private schools while public-school learners remain constrained by inadequate hardware and internet access. Infrastructure limitations, particularly in broadband connectivity and device availability, can hinder digital adoption.

There is another important barrier: AI itself requires foundational skills. Students need adequate reading, analytical and other foundational competencies to use these technologies effectively. If those foundations are weak, simply giving learners access to AI does not necessarily close the gap.

The Praxis Paradox reaches a remarkably similar conclusion within PR.

The study identifies an “AI Technical Competency Gap.” The challenge is not merely whether students know how to use AI tools. Fresh graduates also need to know how to quality-check AI outputs, work with data, use sophisticated prompting, and connect AI-assisted work with strategic judgment.

This is particularly important for communication professionals. The study argues that modern PR requires practitioners to move beyond simple “cut-and-paste” AI usage toward prompt engineering, data analysis, AI ethics and what it describes as narrative intelligence, using data and logic to strengthen storytelling.

Thus, the AI divide is not merely a technology-access problem. It is also a skills problem.

Those who already possess strong literacy, analytical skills, technological access and exposure to practitioners are positioned to benefit from AI. Those who lack these foundations risk falling further behind.

Two Studies, One Bigger Question

What makes these findings significant is that they come from different vantage points.

PBEd looks at the Philippine education system and its capacity to prepare learners for life and work. PRSP and San Beda zoom in on one profession and asks whether PR education is keeping pace with actual professional practice.

Yet both lead us to the same question:

Are our educational institutions preparing students for the world they will enter, or for the world that existed when the curriculum was written?

The question is particularly pressing because the workplace is no longer changing gradually. AI, data analytics, digital platforms and new forms of communication are rapidly reshaping professional practice.

PRSP and San Beda, for example, identify data analysis and social listening, advanced communication and storytelling, and critical thinking, agility and resilience as non-negotiable competencies for modern PR practitioners.

They also recommend stronger collaboration between academe and industry: embedded practitioners, simulation laboratories, more rigorous internships and opportunities for students to work on real-world problems.

PBEd likewise calls for stronger partnerships among government, schools and the private sector, recognizing that no single actor can close the country’s education gaps alone.

The Solution Cannot Be Simply “More Education”

The two studies suggest that the challenge is not merely getting more Filipinos into schools or producing more graduates.

It is about making education more relevant, equitable and connected to the world beyond the classroom.

For PR, this could mean giving students greater exposure to actual industry problems, data, AI tools, strategic decision-making and ethical dilemmas—not just communication theories and classroom exercises.

For the broader education system, it means ensuring that learners develop the foundational literacy, numeracy, critical thinking and digital capabilities necessary to participate meaningfully in an AI-driven economy.

And for both, it means confronting inequality in access to opportunity.

The danger is that the skills mismatch and AI divide could reinforce each other: students who receive an education disconnected from industry may enter the workforce without the skills employers need; meanwhile, those with better access to technology, stronger foundations and greater exposure to AI will continue pulling ahead.

That makes the issue bigger than employability.

It is ultimately an issue of equity, economic competitiveness and the future of Filipino learners.

Two studies. Two very different lenses. But they agree on two fundamental challenges: we have a skills mismatch, and the AI divide is widening.

The question now is not whether these gaps exist.

It is how quickly education, industry and government can work together to close them.