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Bloomberg

On August 22, schools in the Philippines will finally reopen their doors to students after two and a half years – one of the longest pandemic-induced school closures in the world.
As well as devastating the individual prospects of countless children, the extended hiatus is threatening to leave long-term scars on an economy historically reliant on sending high-skilled workers abroad.
Protracted school closures worsen basic literacy standards and will likely reduce the productivity and earnings of children once they enter the workforce, the World Bank warned in a recent report.
About 10 per cent of Filipinos work abroad and the economy is dependent on remittances sent back by its overseas nurses, teachers and engineers, among other workers. A steady flow of graduates is also essential to the country’s push to establish itself as an outsourcing centre for international corporations and to increasing the number of decent jobs closer to home.
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“The impact is huge,” the country’s economic planning chief Arsenio Balisacan said in an interview. “The quality of graduates we produce affects the competitiveness of our labour force.”
While protracted school closures have bedevilled many countries – particularly poorer ones – the problem is particularly acute in the Philippines, where the shutdown has been one of the longest in the world according to data from the United Nations Children’s Fund. Even now, full in-person teaching isn’t planned until November.
One reason for the tardiness in reopening is the country’s social structure. Households are mostly composed of extended families so many children live with grandparents who are vulnerable to the virus because of old age, or with other relatives who may have underlying health conditions.
Exacerbating fears of the virus are long-standing logistical issues in poorly funded schools including overcrowding. Before the virus, classes in public schools of more than 60 students were common, necessitating textbook sharing and preventing any meaningful social distancing.


So while parents are dismayed at their children’s lack of progress, fear of the virus has kept criticism of the government in check. Cristina Martinez, a 31-year-old vegetable seller in the coastal town of Hagonoy and mother of four children, said her 10-year-old “can barely read sentences,” particularly in English, the language used in science and maths textbooks. “The situation is hard for us, but I think there’s not much we can do.”
Compensating for two years of inadequate learning requires a programme that includes make-up classes for younger pupils and training for college students to prevent irreversible human capital losses, Balisacan said.
Success is crucial if the next generation of Filipinos are to access good quality jobs – and new president Ferdinand Marcos Jnr is to keep his pledge to bring the poverty rate to 9 per cent by the end of his term in 2028 from 23.7 per cent as of the first half of last year.

A failing education system means the nation’s future labour force could have a much more limited skill set, said Nicholas Mapa, economist at ING Groep in Manila. “This is one of the many scarring effects on the economy.”
Without a good education, migrant Filipinos will be looking at roles in vulnerable occupations such as cleaning and domestic work, Department of Migrant Workers Secretary Susan Ople said. These typically attract both poorer pay and conditions.
In his inauguration speech, Marcos Jnr said pushing more money into education and reforms such as revamping the curricula is a top priority.
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Entry-level teachers in public elementary and secondary schools receive monthly salaries of just over US$400 and primary education expenditure per child in the country is 30 per cent below the average for lower middle-income countries, according to development agency data.
“We are condemning the future of our race to menial occupations abroad,” Marcos Jnr said, making his case for reform. “Once we had an education system that prepared coming generations for more and better jobs, there is hope for a comeback.”


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The Philippines

One of the longest school closures in the world threaten Philippine workforce quality

Volunteers scrub chairs as they clean classrooms at a school in Manila, Philippines, on August 5. Photo: AFP

Parents and volunteers repaint school chairs in preparation for the resumption of classes at a school in Quezon City, Philippines. Photo: Reuters

Can Philippines overcome crisis of investor confidence amid inflation, corruption, debt woes?

An anti-Marcos Jnr protester holds a slogan that reads, “Return what you stole” during a rally in Manila on May 10, 2022. Photo: AP 

Supporters watch a live broadcast of Philippine President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jnr delivering his first State of the Nation Address. Photo: EPA-EFE

Tycoon Fernando Zobel de Ayala, president and CEO of the conglomerate Ayala Corporation, said the business community had “strong confidence” in Marcos’ economic team. Photo: Xinhua

A Covid-19 resurgence is one of a slew of issues facing the country, in addition to surging inflation, astronomical gas prices, a weak peso and high unemployment. File photo: EPA-EFE

In this photo taken on July 20, a staff member compares the sizes of the popular breakfast roll pandesal at a bakery in Manila. Photo: AFP

The Duterte administration had passed laws that lowered corporate income tax rates, and liberalised foreign ownership of investments ranging from airlines to railways, power distribution, domestic shipping and expressways. Photo: AFP

The World Bank estimated that former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Snr (1917 -1989), seen here in his last speech to supporters in 1986, “allegedly embezzled” up to US$10 billion. Photo: Getty Images

Philippine Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno will focus on improving tax collection for now. Photo: Reuters

Professor Walden Bello said that Marcos Jnr’s SONA speech was hardly enough to attract more FDI and counter the country’s “reputation for widespread corruption”. Photo: SCMP

From Singapore and Malaysia to the Philippines, teachers say online learning left them struggling with mental health: ‘I dread going to school’

A schoolteacher works from home. Photo: AFP

Viktorius Veni. Photo: Handout

[Shutterstock] Students had to think of creative ways to stay involved with their school community during the pandemic. Royalty-free stock photo ID: 1739402348 Homeschool Asian little young girl student learning virtual internet online class from school teacher by remote meeting due to covid pandemic. Female teaching math by using headphone and whiteboard.

epa08372304 A teacher makes a heart with her arms toward her students during an online school opening ceremony at an empty classroom of Yongsan Elementary School in Seoul, Sputh Korea, 20 April 2020, as online classes for elementary school students in grades one through three began nationwide. South Korea started the new school year in stages on 09 April, more than a month later than usual due to the COVID-19 and coronavirus pandemic, beginning with online classes for middle and high school senior students. Classes for middle and high school freshmen and juniors and elementary school students in grades four through six went online on 16 April. EPA-EFE/YONHAP SOUTH KOREA OUT

TOPSHOT - Schoolchildren walk towards their open-air school situated on top of a mountain in Doodhpathri, Indian-administered Kashmir, on July 28, 2020. - Schooling in restive Kashmir has been severely disrupted by the pandemic, but also after a strict curfew was imposed almost a year ago when New Delhi stripped the Muslim-majority region of 14 million people of its semi-autonomy. (Photo by Tauseef MUSTAFA / AFP)

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Asia

Southeast Asia


Schools in the country will reopen their doors to students on August 22 after more than two years of shutdown
Experts say the closure has devastated children’s lack of progress and will likely reduce the competitiveness of high-skilled workers heading abroad



Schools in the country will reopen their doors to students on August 22 after more than two years of shutdown.


Coronavirus Philippines

Education

Ferdinand Marcos Jnr