EDITORIAL - Learning crisis

It is but fitting that the school year opens in the same month that the nation celebrates the birth anniversary of Dr. Jose Rizal.

The national hero, whose 164th birth anniversary is celebrated today, was a staunch believer in the power of education to promote personal advancement and national progress.

It’s an insult to the memory of Rizal that Filipino 15-year-old students landed at the bottom in the first two times that the country participated in the Program for International Student Assessment, administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

This week an added insult was the warning of the United Nations Children’s Fund that the country faces a “real and widespread learning crisis.”

The UNICEF Education head, Akihiro Fushimi, cited data from a 2019 study, which showed that 90 percent of Filipino school children in Grade 5 could not read at their expected level, while 83 percent struggled with basic mathematics.

Fushimi noted that the findings came up even before the COVID pandemic, when a two-year lockdown set back education across the country, with many students especially in disadvantaged communities having limited access to alternative learning modes.

Apart from the lockdowns, Fushimi noted that Filipino children grapple with the disruptions caused by numerous natural calamities, including typhoons, floods, landslides, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

The 2019 data showed that Filipino children in Grade 4 typically showed literacy and numeracy skills equivalent only to Grade 1 or 2. That’s a two-year learning gap that Fushimi said is even worse in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, the poorest region in the country.

Malnutrition is also a serious problem that stunts physical and mental growth, according to the World Food Program. The WFP reported last Tuesday that at least 1.7 million Filipino public school children are malnourished – a problem that contributed to poor academic performance.

UNICEF and the WFP are recommending increased state investments not only in early childhood education but also in health and nutrition particularly for children ages three to four years, before they enter kindergarten.

To minimize the disruptions caused by natural disasters, UNICEF is urging the government to invest in climate-resilient schools. In the Philippines, one of the countries at highest risk of climate change impacts, disruptions caused by natural calamities are compounded by the prolonged use of public schools as evacuation centers, according to the Second Congressional Commission on Education.

Experts have been warning for a long time about the crisis in Philippine education. A good way to honor the memory of Rizal today is a firm commitment to reverse this decline.