Prolonged school closure dims children’s futures

Rody Duterte expects pupils to cheer if he extends school break till Dec. Parents won’t wait that long. Prolonged class suspension, they know, does lifelong harm. Dutiful ones spend the long COVID-19 lockdowns reviewing children in familiar subjects. Those who can afford enroll them in online mental-emotional skills tutoring, advanced scholastics, or arts. Not all parents are rich. Most work. Even if from home they cannot give kids the desired full attention. Reluctantly they leave them video-gaming or looking after younger siblings or idling for long hours.

That can’t go on. There’s no substitute for formal learning. Societies strive to keep schools open even during famines or wars. The Philippines holds classes at evacuation centers post typhoons or earthquakes. Apart from the learning side are nutrition and health needs. Millions of Filipino pupils from impoverished families freely, heartily are able to breakfast or lunch in public school. Too, schools are the natural hubs for mass vaccinations. In the midst of COVID-19 pandemic the best the Dept. of Education can do is set class resumption on Aug. 24.

The risk-balancing is delicate. First issue to weigh in school breaks is “learning loss,” Love Basillote, executive director of Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), told “Sapol” radio show last weekend. Global studies show that, even in normal two-month vacations, students forget 20-50 percent of skills they learned. That’s why the first month or two of the following school year is devoted to reviews. Worse during protracted no-classes is the risk of dropping out, Basillote added. Getting used to it, youths can lose interest in school altogether. In an economic slump due to pandemic, parents can lose jobs, and the offspring may have to earn some living. Home learning cannot always substitute. “What if the parents are themselves uneducated, and do not know how or where to coax the children?” Basillote noted.

Then there’s schools economics. Dependent on tuition collections, private schools are struggling to survive during the unexpected lockdowns. Budgets were enough to retain faculty and non-academic staffs for the usual summer break, but not beyond. Administrators are raring to reopen as early as June. Over 60 percent have ready flexible learning options like online classes, Joseph Noel Estrada, managing director of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations, told The STAR early May. Modules had been designed and tested even before this health emergency, added Eleazardo Kasilag, president of the Federation of Associations of Private School Administrators. Methods were refined in special course offerings. Regular enrolment can commence as soon as the DepEd agrees.

If essential industries have restarted, can schools follow suit? The Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases has yet to set guidelines. Filipino youth infection rates need scrutiny. Reports must be verified if school-age children indeed are less likely to catch, fall ill to, and spread COVID-19. The question must be answered: are youth infections low because of their sturdiness, or due to class suspensions to begin with?

International examples of school resumption can be followed. In Europe, America, and Asia countries are experimenting with gradual reopening. First in line are 1st-3rd graders, the thirstiest for learning, and students in the last two years of high school, to prepare for college entrance exams; the rest to follow. Children are made to wear masks, face shields, or plastic raincoats. Frequent hand-washing and physical distancing are musts. Temperatures are checked at school entrances; disinfectants are on every doorway. Desks are set two meters apart, class sizes smaller, and schooldays staggered to accommodate all students by turns. Teachers regularly are tested for COVID-19; the sickly or comorbid are assigned to distance learning courses. Some classes are held outdoors. In canteens plastic dividers are placed on tables set for only two. Strictly no contact sports.

Back-to-school is not necessarily classroom setting, said Education Sec. Leonor Briones. Physical distancing rules will worsen the classroom shortage. Public educators are talking of classes by television, radio, printed materials, and online. TV seems best, as 90 percent of Filipino homes have one. Residual issues emerge, though. ABS-CBN Knowledge Channel, the most experienced and widest reach on free TV, has been unplugged along with the mother network by its political detractors.

Usec. Eliseo Rio of Information and Communications Technology has two Wi-Fi solutions. One is for the National Telecommunications Commission to lower spectrum-usage fees. That would push small Internet service providers to connect more homes at cheaper rates. Another is to lease Internet cafés as online classrooms.

Briones and Rio’s online option needs state and private sector support. It can only work if all penurious students are equipped with free smartphones and Wi-Fi, like those from well-off families. The units can also serve as contact-tracing aids if they get infected (see https://www.philstar.com/opinion/2020/05/15/2014050/one-phone-contact-tracing-agri-info-online-schooling). No need to compete with siblings for use of a single home unit and suffer poor signal. Basillote’s PBEd, an NGO of CEOs, can help. It has trained out-of-school youths in Muslim Mindanao – free gadgets and data load – with a 93-percent completion rate. Education is the great leveler of the playing field.

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Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).

My book “Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government’ is available on Amazon: Exposés: Investigative Reporting for Clean Government

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