This is just so depressing

[Mike J]

I think we all know that the education system here needs a lot of work.  But to find out that 91% of 10th graders cannot understand a relatively simple written statement brings tears to my eyes.   I just feel so sorry for these children. 

There are a number of charts and graphs in the article.  I encourage forum members to click the URL to get an even deeper understanding of how bad the problem is.  

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1651996/face-to-face-classes-back-but-can-these-reduce-91-learning-poverty-in-ph

MANILA, Philippines—Last Monday (Aug. 22), millions of learners went back to school for the resumption of face-to-face classes, which the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said could help address “learning poverty”.

The Department of Education (DepEd) said on Tuesday (Aug. 23) that 28,797,660 learners have enrolled for the school year, with 24,175 schools implementing five-day face-to-face classes while 29,721 schools going on blended learning.

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It was stressed by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte that the opening of classes, which was “courageously made despite the challenges and fears brought by the COVID-19 pandemic,” is a “victory for basic education.”

READ: PH schools reopen; VP says it’s ‘victory’ for education
Unicef commended the DepEd, Early Childhood Care and Development Council and the Bangsamoro Region’s Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education for taking decisive steps to open classrooms for learners this school year.

However, Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov, Unicef representative to the Philippines, said that “as we welcome children back into the classrooms today, let us remember that this is the first of many steps in our learning recovery journey.”

He stressed that every day spent in the classroom is a chance, especially for the government to improve and chart the path to an “effective, equitable, and resilient education system.”

Unicef then called on education stakeholders to adopt the RAPID learning recovery framework, which prompts the government to accelerate efforts to:

Reach every child and retain them in school
Assess learning levels
Prioritize teaching the fundamentals
Increase catch-up learning and progress beyond what was lost
Develop psychosocial health and well-being so every child is ready to learn
RELATED STORY: Unicef: Many children drop out as in-person classes reopen
The Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) likewise said that the resumption of face-to-face classes will give students a chance to cope, which it said could address the learning crisis that was worsened by the shift to distance learning.

Justine Raagas, acting executive director of PBEd, told ANC that “one of the biggest opportunities actually now is their return to classes” because before the COVID-19 crisis, learning poverty in the Philippines was only 69.5 percent.

“So the school closures, and the shift to purely modular learning, or lack of interaction in the classroom, or lack of supervision by teachers has actually exacerbated that,” she said.

Learning crisis in PH
Last month, World Bank (WB) said that learning poverty, which is the share of 10-year-olds who cannot read or understand a simple written text, hit a new high of 91 percent just last June, higher than the 90 percent last year.

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READ: WB: Remote learning jacked up learning poverty in PH to 90% in 2021
The 91 percent rate, which means that nine out of 10 Filipino children (10-year-olds) are still struggling to read or understand a simple written text, is one of the highest in the East Asia and Pacific region.

This, even if the DepEd had said last year that “the issue of learning poverty has been a dilemma of the country for years and the department is proactively dealing with it for the long term.”

READ: DepEd on WB report that 90% of kids suffer from learning poverty: It is being resolved 
Based on WB estimates, as many as 91 percent of Filipino 10-year-olds “are not proficient in reading.” Compared to other countries, the learning poverty rate in the Philippines was higher by 56.4 percentage points.

RELATED STORY: When 10-year-olds can’t read: The dulling of PH education
It was even higher than the average of 34.5 percent in the East Asia and Pacific region. The 91 percent was also worse compared to the rest of lower-middle income countries as it reflected a gap of 80.5 percentage points.

GRAPHIC Ed Lustan

Last July 23, The Straits Times of Singapore published an article regarding the Washington-based lender’s report “The State of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update” and listed down learning poverty rates in Asia:

Singapore: 3%
South Korea: 3%
Japan: 4%
Vietnam: 18%
China: 18%
Thailand: 23%
Malaysia: 42%
Indonesia: 53%
India: 53%
Philippines: 91%
It was stressed in the WB report that “global learning poverty is at crisis levels and continues to worsen in the wake of the worst shock to education and learning in a century.”

‘Deprived of learning’
The Straits Times’ list showed that in Asia, learning deprivation was also highest in the Philippines—90 percent. WB considers children who were not able to reach “minimum proficiency level” in reading tests to be “learning deprived.”

The problem, as stressed by WB, is compounded by the significant number of out-of-school youth as five percent primary school-aged children are not enrolled in school.

GRAPHIC Ed Lustan

It also said that learning poverty is higher for boys than for girls in the Philippines because of these two reasons:

The share of out-of-school children is higher for boys (5.1 percent) than for girls (4.8 percent).
Boys are less likely to achieve minimum proficiency at the end of primary school (91.7 percent) than girls (89.2 percent).
Learning poverty in the Philippines was only 69.5 percent in 2019, but because of the COVID-19 crisis, which forced educational institutions to shift to distance learning, the rate hit 90 percent in 2021 and 91 percent this year. 

Last month, Duterte required all public and private schools to shift to five-day face-to-face classes starting Nov. 2. However, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. stressed that “blended learning” would continue beyond Oct. 31 in specific areas to be identified by the DepEd.

Learning inequalities
WB had said that in March last year, remote learning in the Philippines covered only 20 percent of households with school children—the lowest rate alongside Ethiopia.

“Children’s engagement with remote learning is generally low where parents or caregivers lack any type of education and, in several countries, these children were three-to-four times less likely to engage in a learning activity compared to households where parents have tertiary education, as seen in the Philippines and Peru.”

GRAPHIC Ed Lustan

The surveys conducted by WB last year showed that in the Philippines, only nine percent of school children with elder household members with no education participated in remote learning activities.

In contrast, 40 percent of school children with parents who had tertiary or college-level education engaged in remote learning. In households with parents who reached primary or secondary education, the participation rates were both 16 percent.

WB also saw how lack of access to the internet and even slow connection hindered distance learning, saying that only 26.9 percent of students have broadband internet access, although a bigger 88.8 percent have access to mobile technology.

Unicef said that recovering lost learning would require a sustained whole of society approach: “Experience from schools and early learning centers that piloted in-person classes revealed that parents, local officials, the business sector and community members played a crucial role in ensuring that learning continues.”

Traced back to poverty
WB said that as a result of the worst shock to education, learning poverty has increased by a third in low- and middle-income nations, with an estimated 70 percent of 10-year-olds who cannot understand a simple written text.

As early as 2019, nine out of 10 children in low-income countries were already struggling with “learning poverty”.

Unicef stressed that household-income shocks, prolonged school closures, and poor health risk mitigation had the strongest impact on learning poverty, resulting in many Filipino 10-year-olds failing to read and understand a simple written text. 

READ: Lockdown’s impact: Unicef cites poor reading skills among PH kids

GRAPHIC Ed Lustan

“Vulnerable children such as children with disabilities, children living in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, and children living in disaster and conflict zones fare far worse.”

Based on data from Unicef, 2.85 million Filipino children were out of school in 2018, while some 31.4 percent of children in the Philippines belonged to poor families in 2015.

The Philippine Statistics Authority had said in 2017 that almost 10 percent of the estimated 39 million Filipinos aged six to 24 years old were out-of-school children and youth.

GRAPHIC Ed Lustan

It explained that less than two percent of children aged 6 to 11 years were out of school, which is twice lower than the 3.5 percent of the total children aged 12 to 15 years who were not attending school.

Their most common reasons were marriage or family matters (42.3 percent), high cost of education or financial concerns (20.2 percent), and lack of personal interest (19.7 percent).

Nationwide, at least 53 percent of out-of-school children and youth belong to families whose income fall at the bottom 30 percent based on their per capita income.

Hunger affects learning
Likewise, the PBEd stressed that “our learners have been going to school unprepared because they are hungry.”

“So there is that issue of malnutrition that stems very early on. Since 2001, one out of three five-year-olds in the country are stunted or too short for their age. Meaning, they go to school, they’re hungry. They have poor cognitive abilities. They can’t comprehend what’s being taught because they already have these poor conditions,” Raagas said.

Based on data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2.8 million Filipino children have experienced hunger last year, while one in three children (29 percent) younger than five years old suffered from stunting, or being small in size for their age, in 2019.

According to WB, “all children should be able to read by age 10.” 

This, as “reading is a gateway for learning as the child progresses through school—and conversely, an inability to read constrains opportunities for further learning. Reading proficiency is also critical for foundational learning in other subjects.”

Resources lacking
In its report, WB noted that the Philippines was spending less on public education than its regional and income-level counterparts.

“Primary education expenditure per child of primary education age in the Philippines is $569, which is 83.5 percent below the average for the East Asia and Pacific region, and 29.5 percent below the average for lower-middle income countries,” it said.

Even before the pandemic, the Philippines’ underinvestment in education was reflected in its poor performance in global learning assessments, such as the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study in 2019, and the Program for International Student Assessment in 2018.

For Raagas, “We do not have enough resources. So while we have learning losses and gaps, historically only three percent of our [gross domestic product] has been allotted to the education sector, while the prescribed amount globally should be six percent of the GDP.”

House Deputy Minority Leader and Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers) had disproved claims that education will get the biggest chunk of the proposed 2023 budget, saying that debt servicing will still get the biggest chunk and the education budget still falls short of the United Nations’ suggested 6 percent of GDP.

“With the P1.35 trillion budget allocation for debt servicing through automatic appropriations versus the P852.8 billion for education, the administration of President Marcos, Jr. cannot say that it allocated the biggest chunk of the 2023 proposed budget to education,” Castro said.

RELATED STORY: World Bank: Pandemic to sink 2.7M more Filipinos in poverty
For instance, last Aug. 11, while the DepEd was already preparing for the resumption of face-to-face classes, it said  it lacks around 91,000 classrooms  for the school year 2022 to 2023.

To address the problem, the DepEd said that it will implement class shifting schedules and build temporary spaces, which was seen to reduce the shortage by 51,000.

Read more: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1651996/face-to-face-classes-back-but-can-these-reduce-91-learning-poverty-in-ph#ixzz7cpknAM2A
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[OnMyWay]

I clicked on another link in the article.  2021 Article.  During the 2 year shut-down of schools, especially in the last year, I was perplexed by the decisions regarding schools.  The former secretary of Deped struck me as old and not very smart.  Now it is Sara Duterte.  Her father approved all the shutdowns so I don't know if she will be any better.  How is she qualified?

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1478895/unicef-worries-for-ph-kids-missing-in-person-classes#ixzz7cmUHMDkf

Unicef points out effects of missing in-person classes on Filipino kids

By: Ben O. de Vera, Meg Adonis - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:30 AM August 26, 2021

DROP BOX NOT FOR DROPOUTS A mother submits an enrollment form for her child at Juan Sumulong Elementary
School in Antipolo City on Wednesday. A newschool year starts in the public education system on Sept. 13 but distance learning will likely remain the norm as the pandemic rages on and with vaccination numbers in the country still way below target. —GRIG C.MONTEGRANDE

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines is among only five countries in the world that have not resumed in-person classes since the COVID-19 pandemic was declared last year, and the prolonged closure has infringed on the right to learn of more than 27 million Filipino students, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said on Wednesday.

According to Unicef Philippines representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov, on average, schools globally were fully closed for 79 teaching days but schools in the Philippines have been closed for more than a year already.

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“The associated consequences of school closures — learning loss, mental distress, missed vaccinations, and heightened risk of dropout, child labor, and child marriage — will be felt by many children, especially the youngest learners in critical development stages,” Dendevnorov said in a statement.

The four other countries yet to reopen schools are Bangladesh, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.

 

The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said a wider learning gap between rich and poor students as a result of the conduct of virtual classes was more worrisome than the trillion-peso losses from school closures.

Citing the Unicef report and that of the United Nations Development Program, Neda said “remote education may worsen inequality as some households have limited access to reliable internet and necessary devices.”

 

 

 

Remote learning

Philippine schools stopped in-person classes shortly after the pandemic was declared in April 2020, and have been closed since.

On Wednesday at the hearing of the Senate committee on basic education, culture, and the arts, the Department of Education (DepEd) admitted that it had yet to present to President Rodrigo Duterte a proposal for limited in-person classes in 100 public schools.

The DepEd implemented remote learning in the school year 2020-2021 — and will continue to do so in the next school year that opens on Sept. 13 — but at least 1.1 million Filipino students remained out of school due to the demands of the new setup.

Recognizing that in-person classes ensured a higher quality of education than remote learning, the DepEd proposed the pilot implementation of classes in December 2020.

Duterte approved the proposal but changed his mind following the emergence of the UK COVID-19 variant. With the highly transmissible Delta variant, he reiterated that in-person classes would not resume.

[OnMyWay]

I wonder how they sampled?  Kids going to private school fare much better and there are a lot of private schools.  Of course, most Filipino kids can't enjoy the luxury of a private school.  A FB friend of mine, an Aussie, just enrolled his 3 kids in a public school.  I was thinking about sending him the article.

My young kids started at their "new" private school on August 8th.  Our oldest went to the same school from 4th to 10th grade, so we know it well.  We moved them from the other more expensive private school because the classes were too small for the younger kids.  Last year, when my daughter was in online 2nd grade, she only had one classmate.  It is a good school but school should also be a social learning experience.  She has 8 in her class now with a few late enrollees coming.

Another odd thing.  Some kids did not go to school the last year or two.  My 1st grader has a couple of boys in her class that appear to be 8 or 9, at least.  And my 3rd grader says they have a new student that appears to be a "teenager"!

[Snowy79]

Yes but can they do the latest Tik Tok dance? 

[Old55]

Could this be by design? An uneducated population are easier to manipulate and rule. 

[hk blues]

3 hours ago, OnMyWay said:

I wonder how they sampled?  Kids going to private school fare much better and there are a lot of private schools.  Of course, most Filipino kids can't enjoy the luxury of a private school.  A FB friend of mine, an Aussie, just enrolled his 3 kids in a public school.  I was thinking about sending him the article.

My young kids started at their "new" private school on August 8th.  Our oldest went to the same school from 4th to 10th grade, so we know it well.  We moved them from the other more expensive private school because the classes were too small for the younger kids.  Last year, when my daughter was in online 2nd grade, she only had one classmate.  It is a good school but school should also be a social learning experience.  She has 8 in her class now with a few late enrollees coming.

Another odd thing.  Some kids did not go to school the last year or two.  My 1st grader has a couple of boys in her class that appear to be 8 or 9, at least.  And my 3rd grader says they have a new student that appears to be a "teenager"!

We had already enrolled our son for the SY 22/23 and paid the fees etc and all ready to go from early next month when we received an email to attend an urgent Zoom meeting the next day.  The school announced it was closing immediately due to insufficient numbers - no surprise given they had increased the fees year on year by way more than any reasonable and logical amount.  So, we were left to scrabble around for 2 days to get him into a "good" school - we were incredibly lucky to find a place for him in a much better school literally a couple of hours before the deadline.

Poor show form my son's previous school to close down after many schools had already started the new SY. Luckily my son is extremely laid back and hasn't had any issue adjusting but many of his classmates may be different.