School dropouts and the pandemic

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IT is totally concerning, this information from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), confirming what many have thought all along: that the COVID-19 pandemic has left thousands of children bereft of genuine learning. New data from the UN agency said that many children have dropped out as classrooms reopened for in-person classes in many parts of the globe.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) released its study last November 2021, saying that the number of out-of-school youths rose at the onset of the pandemic from 16.9 percent in January 2020 to 25.2 percent three months later in April 2020.

Apropos to this, we note that the American agency has been actively assisting the government, in this particular case the Department of Education (DepEd), in tracking developments in education, whether positive or not.

‘Why is a foreign entity like the USAID ahead of the Department of Education in this basic task?’

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Going by the DepEd’s official numbers, there were at least 1.1 million students who failed to enroll for school year 2020 to 2021 due to various reasons, one of them the lack of internet access. The enrollment at the basic education level reached 27.2 million on Nov. 15, 2021, according to the DepEd’s Learner Information System. This was 3.83 percent higher than the 26.2 million enrollment in the previous school year when the restrictive lockdowns were imposed due to the pandemic, but still dismal as compared to pre-pandemic levels.

The department, headed by Secretary Leonor Briones, was quick to pat itself in the back believing that it successfully implemented various distance learning schemes. At this late hour in the day, Secretary Briones is still collating data on the number of children who dropped out of school. Why is a foreign entity like the USAID ahead of the Department of Education in this basic task?

The education department announced last week that it was working on a Learning Recovery Plan to address the problems created by the COVID-19 pandemic on the education sector. Why only now? In a couple of weeks, the current education officials would be replaced by the next President, and this recovery plan will most likely find its way into the shredding machine.

The challenges in achieving a fairly working recovery program in education are many and complicated, and if the current DepEd tried to work it out and failed to make a dent, perhaps the next education officials can make a difference.

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