UNICEF: PH has longest closure of schools in Asia-Pacific
Schools in the Philippines have remained closed for the longest time among countries in the Asia-Pacific region since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), said the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).
(SUGPAT Facebook page / MANILA BULLETIN)
During a Senate hearing on Wednesday, February 24, UNICEF Philippine chief of education Isy Faingold noted that only 14 countries in the world have kept their schools closed since the pandemic was declared in 2020.
Nine are in Latin America, others are in North Africa and the Middle East, and lastly, the Philippines.
The UNICEF representative also presented to the Senate basic education committee a timetable of school closure and reopenings in countries in East Asia and the Pacific region.
"The Philippine is the only country in the region to have a nationwide closure the whole time, from the beginning of the pandemic," said Faingold.
While schools in Malaysia, Mongolia and Myanmar were closed at the moment due to the re-emergence of the outbreak or their political situations, he said their governments have previously allowed the partial and full reopening of schools.
"The school closure or in-person learning been longer and more severe than the rest of the countries," he later noted.
The Philippine government imposed on March 16, 2020 strict quarantine measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19. This, too, disrupted the resumption of classes and forced the country to adopt alternative learning modalities for Filipino students, such as online classes and self-learning modules.
Classes only opened on October 5, 2020 for grade school and high school students, while face-to-face classes are still prohibited.
Recently, President Duterte rejected anew proposals for limited face-to-face classes pending the mass vaccinations against COVID-19.
Faingold warned that the prolonged closure of schools and loss of learning could have a long-term effect on children, specifically their "opportunities in higher education, in accessing better jobs and competing in global economy".
"The longer the school closure , the most severe would be the impact... When this period of not having classes is longer, the effect cannot be easily caught up. This could even be deeper," Faingold said when asked about the effects of the school closure.
He added that it will also negatively impact the Philippines as a whole.
"It's likely. The school break is longer, other countries didn't have that, the Philippines took longer to start the learning modalities, there was an extension of the original date...So in the end, that period of not having an type of learning, not even distance learning could have an effect ," he opined.
"That definitely would have an impact," Faingold said.
The UNICEF has recommended the gradual reopening of schools and holding of physical classes.