For the past two years, the pandemic has placed many Filipinos’ lives on a halt.

It has
shown people how we did, even for a minuscule amount, take what we had for granted.
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is still an ongoing global pandemic and the Philippines is right
now slowly recovering.

What normal we knew two years ago is different from what we know now and during
those years, COVID-19 has taken a heavy toll on rural livelihoods. Loss of income and job
opportunities were overarching challenges in poor communities in the Philippines. Aside from
the economic losses, the pandemic has also become a great hurdle for our students. With
suddenly being pulled away from face-to-face classes to facing the screens at home for online or
modular classes.
The school closure affects learners in various ways, taking away more resources to learn
such as more in-depth assistance from educators or teamwork-building with classmates. It takes
away the ability to lead others and appropriately socialize with peers. Since this has also put a
halt in school activities, much-needed physical activity for children’s growth has been
substantially reduced.
“In 2020, schools globally were fully closed for an average of 79 teaching days, while
the Philippines has been closed for more than a year, forcing students to enroll in distance
learning modalities.  The associated consequences of school closures learning loss, mental
distress, missed vaccinations, and heightened risk of dropout, child labor, and child marriage will
be felt by many children, especially the youngest learners in critical development stages,”
UNICEF Philippines Representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov says.
The Philippines received the first batch of COVID-19 vaccines committed by the
COVAX Facility in Manila on March 4, 2021. Now most Filipinos have received doses of the
vaccine, so have students, this opens the opportunity to begin limited face-to-face classes and so
far, this has gone well. Students have openly admitted that this way of learning is easier and
more effective. So, although limited, we are here to fight for a safe and better normal.
Positive school experiences during this transition phase have been demonstrated in
studies to predict children's future social, emotional, and educational outcomes. At the same
time, children who fall behind in learning during their early years frequently fall further behind
during their remaining school years, and the gap increases with time. The amount of years of
education a student receives also has a direct impact on his or her future wages.