Philippines Returns to School, Ending One of World’s Longest Shutdowns
By Jason Gutierrez, Aug. 22, 2022, NY Times

MANILA — Millions of students throughout the Philippines headed to school on Monday as in-person classes began to fully restart for the first time in more than two years, ending one of the world’s longest pandemic-related shutdowns in a school system
already plagued by severe underinvestment.

“We could no longer afford to delay the education of young Filipinos,” said Vice President Sara Duterte, who is also the education secretary, as she toured schools in the town of Dinalupihan, about 40 miles northwest of Manila.

Even before the pandemic, the Philippines had among the world’s largest education gaps, with more than 90 percent of students unable to read and comprehend simple texts by age 10, according to the World Bank.

Schools in the Philippines have long suffered from shortages of classrooms and teachers, whose pay is low, leaving the vast numbers of poor children who cannot afford private schools and rely on the public system with inadequate teaching.

Now, after losing more than two years of in-person instruction, schools face the monumental challenge of educating many students who have fallen even further behind.

Though the Philippines offered online instruction during the pandemic, many students lacked access to computers or internet connections, and overburdened parents often found it hard to keep tabs on their children’s remote learning.

In some cases, students’ already tenuous connection to school may have been severed entirely after so long away.

“As we welcome children back into the classrooms today, let’s remember that this is the first of many steps in our learning recovery journey,” said Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov, the Unicef representative in the Philippines.

In many countries, as the shortcomings of online learning became increasingly well documented — especially for more disadvantaged students — govts elected to send kids back to classrooms even as the coronavirus continued to circulate widely.

A World Bank report that examined 35 studies from 20 countries concluded that the longer schools remained closed, the more ground students lost, with potentially far-reaching consequences. “The inequality in learning between advantaged and
disadvantaged groups is likely to grow,” the report said, “posing a significant challenge to ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity.”

Many kids simply dropped out. In Uganda, for example, one in 10 students did not report back for classes when they resumed in January after what was one of the world’s longest shutdowns, according to UNICEF.

In the Philippines, govt officials and parents were hesitant to reopen classrooms, fearing that schoolkids could bring the virus back to homes crowded with multiple generations of family members and overtax an already creaky health care system.

Starting in late 2021, the govt began to experiment with conducting in-person classes in about 300 schools, but has now begun expanding it to cover all primary and secondary schools. Currently only some schools are in-person all five weekdays; by
November, all of the country’s roughly 47,000 schools will be.

Ms. Duterte said the number of those enrolled in the country has hit nearly 28 million children, both in the public and private schools.

Maria Rogas, a mother of three in suburban Bacoor City, south of Manila, said she had mixed feelings about sending her kids back to school.

On the one hand, she welcomes the return to normalcy, but on the other, “Covid remains a scary problem.”

Data from the Dept of Health shows that only roughly 27% of children aged 5 to 11, and about 76% of those between 12 and 17, have been fully vaccinated.

To make it easier for children to get their shots, local health officials were encouraged to set up satellite vaccination sites at schools. However, this was not mandated by the govt at the national level. Vaccinations remain purely voluntary, and
widespread hesitancy is a problem.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who last month ruled out more economically crippling lockdowns amid the pandemic, on Monday stressed that learning was more effective if classes were done physically in schools, but also called on the public to observe
proper health protocols.

Ms. Rogas, 43, said her children had been vaccinated, but she still worried. “You never know about this virus, which mutates every so often,” she said.

For now, she said, they were just happy to return to school. “For two years, they only saw their friends and classmates on small screens, so they are excited to interact with them.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/world/asia/philippines-covid-school-shutdown-ends.html

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On Monday, August 29, 2022 at 11:53:11 AM UTC+8, David P. wrote:

Philippines Returns to School, Ending One of World’s Longest Shutdowns
By Jason Gutierrez, Aug. 22, 2022, NY Times

MANILA — Millions of students throughout the Philippines headed to school on Monday as in-person classes began to fully restart for the first time in more than two years, ending one of the world’s longest pandemic-related shutdowns in a school

system already plagued by severe underinvestment.

“We could no longer afford to delay the education of young Filipinos,” said Vice President Sara Duterte, who is also the education secretary, as she toured schools in the town of Dinalupihan, about 40 miles northwest of Manila.

Even before the pandemic, the Philippines had among the world’s largest education gaps, with more than 90 percent of students unable to read and comprehend simple texts by age 10, according to the World Bank.

Schools in the Philippines have long suffered from shortages of classrooms and teachers, whose pay is low, leaving the vast numbers of poor children who cannot afford private schools and rely on the public system with inadequate teaching.

Now, after losing more than two years of in-person instruction, schools face the monumental challenge of educating many students who have fallen even further behind.

Though the Philippines offered online instruction during the pandemic, many students lacked access to computers or internet connections, and overburdened parents often found it hard to keep tabs on their children’s remote learning.

In some cases, students’ already tenuous connection to school may have been severed entirely after so long away.

“As we welcome children back into the classrooms today, let’s remember that this is the first of many steps in our learning recovery journey,” said Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov, the Unicef representative in the Philippines.

In many countries, as the shortcomings of online learning became increasingly well documented — especially for more disadvantaged students — govts elected to send kids back to classrooms even as the coronavirus continued to circulate widely.

A World Bank report that examined 35 studies from 20 countries concluded that the longer schools remained closed, the more ground students lost, with potentially far-reaching consequences. “The inequality in learning between advantaged and

disadvantaged groups is likely to grow,” the report said, “posing a significant challenge to ending extreme poverty and promoting shared prosperity.”

Many kids simply dropped out. In Uganda, for example, one in 10 students did not report back for classes when they resumed in January after what was one of the world’s longest shutdowns, according to UNICEF.

In the Philippines, govt officials and parents were hesitant to reopen classrooms, fearing that schoolkids could bring the virus back to homes crowded with multiple generations of family members and overtax an already creaky health care system.

Starting in late 2021, the govt began to experiment with conducting in-person classes in about 300 schools, but has now begun expanding it to cover all primary and secondary schools. Currently only some schools are in-person all five weekdays; by

November, all of the country’s roughly 47,000 schools will be.

Ms. Duterte said the number of those enrolled in the country has hit nearly 28 million children, both in the public and private schools.

Maria Rogas, a mother of three in suburban Bacoor City, south of Manila, said she had mixed feelings about sending her kids back to school.

On the one hand, she welcomes the return to normalcy, but on the other, “Covid remains a scary problem.”

Data from the Dept of Health shows that only roughly 27% of children aged 5 to 11, and about 76% of those between 12 and 17, have been fully vaccinated.

To make it easier for children to get their shots, local health officials were encouraged to set up satellite vaccination sites at schools. However, this was not mandated by the govt at the national level. Vaccinations remain purely voluntary, and

widespread hesitancy is a problem.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who last month ruled out more economically crippling lockdowns amid the pandemic, on Monday stressed that learning was more effective if classes were done physically in schools, but also called on the public to observe

proper health protocols.

Ms. Rogas, 43, said her children had been vaccinated, but she still worried. “You never know about this virus, which mutates every so often,” she said.

For now, she said, they were just happy to return to school. “For two years, they only saw their friends and classmates on small screens, so they are excited to interact with them.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/22/world/asia/philippines-covid-school-shutdown-ends.html

Shutdown of schools for 2 years because of Covid 19 shutdown is too much too long. Students grown two years older will have to graduate two years later. The literacy level in Philippines is very low and many went abroad to work were found to be having
difficulties in comprehending the courses in their work.

They cannot read and write and numeral skill is not on par to the same level of other countries. There is no sustainable motivation when students used online learning, and when there is interruption of feeds, nobody would help at all. The country is
reaching 105 million and yet the poverty level has deepened.

The syllabus in subject has been wound down over the years to adjust to suit the constant low standard decline in the education benchmark standard with other countries.

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