Coupled with other crises, the education crisis continues to pose huge challenges to youths in the Philippines. The fast-growing digital community, rapid climate change and recurring natural disasters are just a few of the obstacles that block their paths to educational and socio-economic growth.
The recent COVID pandemic left many students and youths behind on their learning and academic schedules. The extreme heat earlier this year in June and March of 2024 added to their delay by forcing many Filipino schools shut and pushing students and teachers even further behind in their school curriculum.
In an aim to make of for loss time, the government decided to re-open schools a month earlier this year than in former years. But even those ambitious plans to get the youths back on their educational track met with weather disturbances. On July 19th 2024, approximately one week before the proposed school re-opening date, typhoons Butchoy and Carina blew through the country and wreaked havoc everywhere they could. Some 12,800 schools were affected with 246 reporting flooding and another 425 being used as shelters for evacuees.
What is to be done for the youths of the Philippines?
From extreme heat to flooding, the education of youths in many parts of the Philippines continues to hampered. The youths are worried. Following the typhoons, UNICEF conducted a Philippine-wide U-Report and released their key findings in September 2024. About 26 per cent of young people in the country believe that “climate change and natural disasters” will be the biggest problem they’ll face in the future while 23 per cent are worried about not “being able to finish their education…Young people see the lack of entry-level jobs (33 per cent) and the current economic conditions (26 per cent) as their two biggest obstacles in getting a job or starting a business in the future. Other concerns are the lack of access to quality education (20 per cent) and the disruption AI technology has brought and can bring (18 per cent)”.[1]
Some believe that the government needs to do more to erect structures so that communities can withstand theses natural disasters without burdening the already struggling educational institutions. “Are we doomed to have education constantly disrupted every time there is a calamity? Where are the much-touted disaster-resilient classrooms? Where are the dedicated evacuation centers? Quality education cannot happen in makeshift classrooms or under trees. Our students and teachers deserve better,” (Alliance for Concerned Teachers (ACT) Chairperson) Vladimer Quetua said.
[2]And while natural disasters flare without warning, other deep-seated structural problems continue to affect and eat away at the educational system in the Philippines. Amidst dealing with climate change issues, the Teachers Dignity Coalition highlights the need for the government to address the logistical and instructional needs for the school year, noting that many schools still lack basic learning materials.
Many of the problems identified by ACT and the Department of Education in 2023 still remain unresolved.
“According to the Department of Education (DepEd) in 2023, about 5,000 schools have no access to electricity, while 10,000 have no access to water. This lack of necessities puts both students and teachers at a drawback of low-quality education.
Aside from the lack of water and electricity, the lack of infrastructure, textbooks, and other teaching materials also affects the ability of students to learn effectively.
In her 2023 Basic Education Report, former DepEd secretary Vice President Sara Duterte noted how 327,851 school buildings in the country–100,072 need minor repairs.
Meanwhile, 89,252 infrastructures require major repairs while 21,727 are set for condemnation.
Only 3,637 out of the planned 6,300 classrooms have been built with only 4,542 repaired.
Adding to this was also the lack of teachers and a digital gap in education.”[1]
The list of challenges continues to grow. What is apparent to the Filipino government and the rest of the world is that we cannot sit by and watch as the nation’s youths struggle to maintain hope. As they wrestle with their dreams being washed away and scorched typhoon after typhoon, heat surge after heat surge, we must become the light of hope that guides them back on to pathways of empowerment, upliftment and growth.
Helping the youths in the Philippines stay in school and access quality education, is one way to equip them with the skills to create solutions and rise above the various obstacles against them.
[1] https://republicasiamedia.com/editors-pick/sona-2024-marcos-road-to-improving-philippines-education-system/
[1] https://www.unicef.org/philippines/press-releases/young-people-philippines-want-more-action-climate-change-education-health-and-jobs
[2] https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/7/27/decades-old-plight-newer-challenges-loom-as-philippines-enters-new-school-year-1006