Written by Patricia Anne P. Jaymalin
Published April 14, 2022
Schools in the Philippines have been closed since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak. Though basic enrollment education in the country went up to 100.3% in the school year 2021-2022, an estimated 27 million students in the Philippines missed more than a year of in-person learning.
As schools are slowly opening up, vaccination is not mandatory for pupils in physical education programs in the Philippines, according to the Department of Education (DepEd). The agency, however, is encouraging students to get vaccinated while teachers and other school personnel in charge of face-to-face classes are required to be fully vaccinated.
DepEd said these amended standards will make it easier for schools in Alert Levels 1 and 2 to hold physical classes. As of March 22, more than 10,000 public and private schools had been granted permission to hold in-person classes in the basic education level.
The vaccination rollout for children ages 5 to 11 years old started last February 7. National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 Chief Implementer Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. said the Philippine government ordered 30 million doses of Pfizer's reformulated vaccinations, with 7.5 million arriving in the first quarter and another 7.5 million arriving in the second.
According to the vaccine czar, 160,000 youngsters aged 5 to 11 years have signed up for the Metro Manila trial vaccination.
The Philippine Heart Center, National Children's Hospital, Philippine Children's Medical Center, FilOil Gym in San Juan City, Manila Zoo and SM North Edsa are among the first vaccination centers identified in Metro Manila.
Galvez emphasized that immunizing the aforementioned age group is critical to ensuring their protection against COVID-19 and allowing the country to fully recover from the health crisis.
In October of last year, the Philippines began a pediatric vaccination program for children ages 12 to 17. Over 9.1 million people in this age range had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine as of February 3.
The total number of COVID-19 vaccines sent to the country since February of last year now stands at 217,778,400.
DepEd also admits that there are learning gaps that need to be addressed. In accordance with this, the department has announced that it is working on a “learning recovery plan” to help schools deal with learning deficits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
"As more schools open their doors for physical learning, the Department is currently crafting a learning recovery program as part of our post-pandemic efforts," Education Secretary Leonor Briones said in a statement.
“We have to ensure that our interventions are effective so that everyone can catch up and accelerate their learning,” she added.
According to Education Assistant Secretary Alma Torio, some of the proposed strategies include extending the school calendar, increasing learning time, establishing learning support centers in schools and community-based learning spaces, conducting summer remediation and intervention programs, and hiring more learning support aides.
DepEd also intends to increase reading interventions, make regular home visits, introduce groups or buddy systems, and provide appropriate assessment tasks and materials.
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