Inquirer.net report: inequalities, online classes worsened PH learning poverty

CHEERS TO Inquirer.net’s comprehensive and data-driven report on the resumption of face-to-face classes. It connected the learning losses suffered by Filipino students to the national government’s pandemic response and also to such long-standing issues as poverty, hunger, and underfunding.

Kurt Dela Peña’s August 23 article looked into the recently reported “learning poverty” rate in the country, revealing how a combination of unresolved systemic inequalities and the previous administration’s blanket policy on distance learning put Filipino children at an even bigger disadvantage. The World Bank (WB) defined learning poverty as “the share of 10-year-olds who cannot read or understand a simple written text.” 

The WB’s findings on the learning poverty rate in the country revealed an increase from 90 percent last year to 91 percent in June this year. The country’s 91 percent learning poverty rate means that “nine out of 10 Filipino children (10-year-olds) are still struggling to read or understand a simple written text.” 

The WB’s data also showed that compared to its neighbors, where the average is 35.4 percent, the Philippines’ learning poverty rate is well below the average. When compared to the rate of other lower-middle income countries, the resulting gap is 80.5 percentage points. 

Dela Peña cited Justine Raagas, acting executive director of Philippine Business for Education (PBEd), who told ANC in an interview that “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 [learning poverty].”

The article also cited data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and UNICEF which revealed that children from impoverished backgrounds were the most affected. 

UNICEF identified other learning inequality factors aside from economic status: disability, living in geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas, or in disaster and conflict zones. The article also pointed to the issue of hunger and malnutrition, which PBed stressed keep children from achieving better learning outcomes, with hungry students exhibiting “poor cognitive abilities.” 

Inquirer.net’s report concluded by citing the failure to prioritize education in the budget, a charge made by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT Teachers). Referring to the 2023 national budget proposal of the Marcos administration, ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro criticized the administration for PHP 1.35 trillion budget allocation for debt servicing through automatic appropriations versus the PHP 852.8 billion proposed for education. 

While education has the biggest slice of the budget pie, the proposed amount also still falls short of the United Nations’ suggestion of how much of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should be allocated for education.

Raagas lamented the persistent underinvestment: “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.”  

Media should integrate with education coverage issues of expanded impoverishment, malnutrition, and ill-health which have long-term, generational impacts. Education sector policy and interventions should approach the learning crisis as an issue of children’s well-being as well—and media should include these issues in their reports.