The graduates of the lost generation
Things are slowly getting back to normal. In the past few weeks, we saw the return to face-to-face graduation exercises as schools wind up academic year 2021-2022. The happy faces of the graduates and their parents are a sight to behold.
The graduates who were just awarded with their diplomas and degrees are products of two years of remote learning where the students are left practically on their own to absorb simple to complex concepts in their respective fields of discipline.
Now, we have graduates of programs with fewer hours of hands-on learning experience. UNICEF has coined the term “lost COVID generation” to refer to the longer-term impact of closure of schools on the education and overall well-being of children and young people affected by the pandemic.The future of the entire generation is at risk.
The World Bank estimated that a seven-month absence from schools would increase the share of students in “learning poverty” from 53 to 63 percent. In the Philippines, it is not only seven months but two years. According to UNESCO, learning poverty means being unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10. This indicator brings together schooling and learning indicators: it begins with the share of children who haven’t achieved minimum reading proficiency (as measured in schools) and is adjusted by the proportion of children who are out of school (and are assumed not able to read proficiently). [https://bit.ly/3IqHZWh]
The recent pronouncements of the new administration highlight how much we have lost due to the closure of schools. The President himself has announced the plan to implement 100% face-to-face classes by November this year. NEDA stresses the need for a learning catch-up plan to regain the two years of learning lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. NEDA Chief Arsenio Balisa can emphasized that a learning catch-up plan is crucial as this will help secure better opportunities for future generations and ensure that our demographic dividend will not be wasted.
The return to 100% face-to-face classes is an urgent matter. If we don’t do it as soon as possible, learning poverty will be at the highest level. So far, no vaccine has ever been invented to prevent or cure ignorance and illiteracy.