After nearly three years of lockdown of schools, in-person classes are to resume at full capacity by November this year in the Philippines. President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. made this announcement saying that there will be a gradual resumption of face-to-face learning for the school year of 2022-2023.
School closures have caused enormous losses in education. According to UNICEF, education during the pandemic worsened the learning skills of children, the majority of whom are unable to understand a simple text.
We have reached a real “educational catastrophe,” according to experts. Education agencies claim there is a risk that ten million children will be out of school, apart from the 250 million school-age children excluded from all educational activities.
In the Philippines, schools adopted a hybrid model of learning including online classes, printed materials, and lessons broadcasted on television and social media. In this setting, countless pupils had limited access to internet, and thus, were unable to join online teaching. Many parents felt incapable of tutoring their children at home.
The side effects of this debacle will be felt in the near future. Young Filipinos are at risk of lagging behind in competiveness and professional competence.
Faced with such a distressing world educational panorama, Pope Francis launched the Global Compact of Education in October 2020 as a novel response to help cope with the after effects of the crisis. It aims at ensuring access to quality education for everyone.
In launching the program, Pope Francis appealed to every sector of society across the globe to support the Global Compact on Education. The initiative promotes the values of care for others, peace, justice, goodness, beauty, acceptance, and fraternity in order to build hope, solidarity, and harmony everywhere.
“We consider education to be one of the most effective ways of making our world and history more human. Education is, above all, a matter of love and responsibility handed down from one generation to another,” he said.
Family will be at the center of education as “the first and indispensable educating subject”. The educational pact will also count on communities, schools, universities, institutions, religions, governments, and the whole of humanity in the formation of mature persons.
For sure, there will be hurdles on the implementation of the Global Compact on Education. It will, however, be decisive for the future of our human race.
