MANILA – The Philippines will fully reopen all schools in November for the first time in more than two years, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said today, as experts warn of a growing education crisis sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The country is one of the last to resume full-time in-person classes since the pandemic began, with schools shuttered in March 2020 in tandem with lengthy lockdowns.
The United Nation (UN) children’s agency has warned that school closures have caused enormous losses in education around the world, with some governments slow to reopen classrooms even as vaccination rates increased.
“We have a plan for full face-to-face (schooling) by November of this year,” Marcos told his first news conference after being sworn in as the country’s leader.
“Let’s get this done quickly. Of course we’re careful but we’re always in a hurry because we have to get much done in very little time,” he said.
Marcos said school reopenings will start from September and ramp up rapidly over the next two months, accompanied by a vaccination campaign.
About 64% of the country’s population of 110 million are fully vaccinated.
Former president Rodrigo Duterte allowed children to return to classrooms in just 100 schools out of more than 61,000 in November last year, but ruled out a full resumption before his term ended last month, citing health concerns.
The policy was seen by critics as exacerbating an education crisis in the country.
Alliance of Concerned Teachers secretary-general Raymond Basilio welcomed the new government’s announcement.
“Our teachers have seen a terrible loss of learning since 2020 that is exacerbating poverty,” he said.
Basilio said some teachers in the association had complained that a number of elementary and even high school students still could not read or write.
He told AFP the government’s “blended” learning programme – involving online classes, printed materials and lessons broadcast on television and social media – was “problematic”.
Modules were poorly vetted and young Filipinos had limited internet access, he said.
A report published jointly last month by Unicef and other agencies said the pandemic had increased “learning poverty” by a third in low and middle-income countries, with an estimated 70% of 10-year-olds unable to understand a simple written text.
“Put in strictly economic terms, unless we take action to recover learning, this generation of students is at risk of losing US$21 trillion (RM92.8 trillion) in potential lifetime earnings,” Unicef executive director Catherine Russell said last month.
Last year, 15-year-olds in the Philippines were at or near the bottom in reading, mathematics and science, according to OECD data. – AFP, July 5, 2022
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