Poor reading skills of PH kids blamed on lockdowns

IN its latest report, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) noted that less than 15 percent of schoolchildren in the Philippines, or about three in every 20, can read simple texts in large part due to the longest schools closure of more than 70 weeks as of the middle of February caused by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Based on the latest UNICEF assessment, the situation translates to a learning poverty—defined by the World Bank as the share of 10-year-olds who cannot read or understand a simple story—of more than 85 percent, which is slightly better than the World Bank estimate of as high as 90 percent in November of last year.

Learning poverty in 2019, or before the pandemic happened, was 69.5 percent, according to the World Bank.

UNICEF’s latest joint report with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Bank showed that schools in the Philippines had been closed from face-to-face classes the longest among the 122 countries that the report covered.

Since the onset of the pandemic in mid-March 2020, only a few schools in the country have returned to face-to-face (F2F) or in-person instruction and the government had piloted F2F schooling in public schools, but in a limited scope as Covid-19 continued to rear its ugly head.

Next to the Philippines with the longest schools closure was Uganda, which was nearing breaching the 70-week mark.

Although with shorter closures than the Philippines, however, many other poor and developing countries such as Afghanistan, Cambodia, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Mozambique, and Myanmar suffered a similar fate of having only less than 15 percent of children able to read a simple text.

Globally, “two years into the pandemic, schools have been fully closed for 20 weeks and partially closed for an additional 21 weeks, on average across countries,” UNICEF pointed out.

“Data from the UNESCO global monitoring of school closures reveal that about one in 10 countries have fully closed their schools for over 40 weeks. Schoolchildren around the world have missed an estimated two trillion hours—and counting—of in-person learning since the onset of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns,” it added.

Moreover, UNICEF revealed that about two in five learners continued to experience significant “disruptions to education” up to end-February, citing UNESCO data showing that while a majority of countries have fully opened schools, 42 countries have opened schools partially and six countries still have their schools fully closed.

“The chain effect of school closures could be staggering and felt far beyond education. In addition to missed learning, school closures deprive children of the benefits to their safety, health, nutrition, and overall well-being provided by schools. The impacts of school closures are wide-ranging: estimates suggest 10 million more children could fall off-track in early childhood development as a result of early childhood care and education closures in the first 11 months of the pandemic,” it said.