More than 80% of parents are worried their children “are learning less,” according to Isy Faingold, UNICEF’s education chief in the Philippines.
Faingold was highlighting the fact that most students in the Philippines don’t have a computer or internet at home.
A “blended learning” program involving online classes, printed materials, and lessons broadcast on television and social media was launched in the Philippines in October last year.
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Another UNICEF Philippines official, Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov, has meanwhile warned about the impact of school closures on children.
“The associated consequences of school closures – learning loss, mental distress, missed vaccinations, and heightened risk of drop out, child labour, and child marriage – will be felt by many children, especially the youngest learners in critical development stages,” she said.
Around two-thirds of parents support the reopening of classrooms in areas where virus transmission is low. The school enrollments fell to 26.9 million in September 2020 and have dropped a further 5 million.
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Even as every country in the world has partially or fully reopened schools to in-person classes, the Philippines has kept them closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations said.
President Rodrigo Duterte has rejected proposals for a “pilot reopening” of primary and secondary schools for fear children could catch COVID-19 and infect elderly relatives. (AW)
