Status: 08/22/2022 11:26 am
The new school year has begun for millions of children in the Philippines – and for many of them, after more than two years of interruption due to the corona pandemic, school classes are back for the first time.
After more than two years of closure due to the corona pandemic, the majority of Philippine schools are reopening for face-to-face teaching. They were closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic, and from then on only online classes were held in the island nation in Southeast Asia. In hardly any other country have schools been closed for so long because of the corona pandemic.
In mid-November 2021, 100 of the more than 61,000 public schools were open for two months as part of a pilot test. They were in remote locations and allowed to offer limited face-to-face classes.
Pandemic has exacerbated poverty of many families
Many school children have a lot of catching up to do. Even before the pandemic, nine out of 10 children in the Philippines could not read and understand simple text by the age of 10, according to a recent report by the World Bank and other organizations. The situation is worse in only ten other countries, including Afghanistan, Laos, Chad and Yemen.
The corona pandemic has exacerbated the poverty of many Filipino families. Millions of parents do not know how to pay for their children’s schooling. The government therefore announced financial aid of up to 4,000 pesos (almost 71 euros).
The Philippines has been hit hard by the corona pandemic. The then President Rodrigo Duterte imposed one of the longest corona lockdowns in the world.