DOF warns of dire impact of lack of in-person classes

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Finance (DOF) has warned that the economy stands to lose in the long term due to the absence of face-to-face classes which may affect the quality of education.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the Philippine economy is poised to recover to its pre-pandemic status this year.

However, Dominguez said the government needs to find ways on how to regain the school days lost to the pandemic, saying that the lack of face-to-face classes affects the quality of education.

“These two years of practically no education, no schooling for the young is going to have an economic scarring in the future. How this will affect the earning capacity of the youth in the future? I think that will potentially hit us in the coming future,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez said the government education cluster has to come up with policies that would allow the students to catch up with what they missed out during the pandemic. One of the recommendations he gave is to cut the vacation period to make up for the school days lost to the health crisis.

Otherwise, the finance chief said students may end up graduating with an education that is inferior compared to what pre-pandemic graduates obtained.

“I am not saying that they are completely lost, but I think their online education is inferior to face-to-face education,” Dominguez said.

Other than that, he said the Philippines is  on track to achieve the growth range of seven to nine percent set by the government for 2022, banking on the reforms rolled out by the government to open up the economy and shake up the fiscal structure.

In the Philippines, just 17.7 percent of the population has access to the internet according to the National ICT Household Survey 2019. As such, the government wants to resume face-to-face classes as early as the first quarter.

But because of the rising COVID cases, schools will need to delay the resumption of face to face education as the government raises the Alert Level to 3 in Metro Manila from Jan. 3 to 15.