Gokongwei Brothers Foundation Learning Partnership and Impact Evaluation

Decision-maker’s challenge

The Philippines is facing a serious learning crisis, with data pointing to significant gaps in the basic education system’s ability to equip learners with foundational skills in reading, writing, and basic mathematical operations:

1. Around 24.8 million (29.2%) Filipinos are functionally illiterate¹, with around 10.4 million (10%) Filipinos lacking basic literacy², according to the 2024 Functional Literacy, Education, and Mass Media Survey (FLEMMS) conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority, 
2. Filipino students are ranked nearly last across core subjects in more recent international assessments such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMMS).

To address this, the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation (GBF) created the Class Builder program to improve student learning by scalably upskilling Filipino teachers to be able to provide quality STEM education. The program aims to address the key insights identified throughout the ideation and pilot stages of Class Builder: 

1. Teachers aren’t aware (or do not admit) that they lack content mastery3 and pedagogical skills, so they don’t seek out professional development or upskilling opportunities.
2. Teachers are often overloaded with work⁴ so they wouldn’t have time or energy to upskill even if they wanted to.

Impact opportunity

Class Builder began its official rollout in 2023, and as of 2025, is serving over 3,500 schools across 6 of the 17 regions of the Philippines. By 2029, GBF aims to scale Class Builder to all schools nationwide, upskilling over 400,000 Math, Science, and Remediation teachers, with the ultimate goal of improving learning experiences and learning outcomes for the over 15 million learners across Grades 1 through 12. 

To support GBF’s commitment to improving STEM education in the Philippines, IDinsight will generate evidence and recommendations regarding:

1. The impact of Class Builder to ensure that GBF is effectively using the foundation’s resources to achieve the intended impact on key teacher and student learning outcomes.
2. How the teachers are using the Class Builder platform and materials in their preparation and classroom sessions, to allow GBF to optimize the implementation and/or design of the program.

Our approach

Through a learning partnership, IDinsight aims to support GBF with rigorous evidence on the implementation and impact of the Class Builder program. This partnership includes three components.

Theory of Change and Monitoring & Evaluation Framework Development

IDinsight will co-develop a Theory of Change with GBF to articulate how the key inputs and activities of the program lead to the intended outputs and outcomes. Additionally, we will also co-develop a Monitoring & Evaluation Framework to identify and prioritize key indicators that can be used to monitor implementation and impact of Class Builder. 

Process Evaluation

IDinsight will conduct a process evaluation to measure whether program activities are implemented as planned and if key program participants (teachers and education officers) use Class Builder as expected. These findings will provide GBF timely information and recommendations to optimize the program in time for the impact evaluation.

Randomized Controlled Trial

IDinsight will conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to rigorously test the program’s impact on key student and teacher outcomes. The RCT will be conducted in the school year 2026-2027 and will be used to inform future program design and scale-up plans ahead of nationwide implementation for all of the almost 35,000 public schools in the Philippines.

The results

The partnership is ongoing. Results will be updated at key project milestones.

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Relevant resources:

→ About Class Builder: https://www.gokongweibrothersfoundation.org/programs/class-builder

→ FLEMMS results: https://psa.gov.ph/statistics/education-mass-media

→ PISA results: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/pisa-2022-results-volume-iii_765ee8c2-en/full-report.html

→ TIMMS results: https://timss2019.org/reports/trends-in-average-achievement-m4/index.html