MGA Bata (The Children): Back to Face to Face School in the Philippines. Normal, Or Not So Normal Schooling? Parents Please Update Yourself On Whether This is What You Will Accept For Your Children!

Facemasks &/or face shields, no air conditioning, social distancing, no talking during meals, counselling for families of non-vaccinated students with mobile vaccination provided upon consent.

There is a fury of articles being published regarding children in the Philippines going back to school; with many supportive and many equally reluctant parties. The fear conditioning of the past 2 1/2 years has certainly made parents fearful for their children… that fear will be hard to counter and undo!

Despite statements from DOH and DepED that vaccination of children is not compulsory for school education, articles like the following provide evidence of the mass push to get all school age children, from 5 years up, dosed or even boosted with Pfizer, asap!

The President, who has just recovered from his second bout with covid-19 claims that being boosted is what saved him from severe illness (not the inherent mildness of the current variant). He is calling for Filipinos to step up and take covid-19 vaccines and boosters to protect from severe covid-19 infection, and particularly for children to be given Pfizer in preparation for the return of children to school next month.

Unfortunately, it seems that the President’s advisors have not informed him that the current covid-19 vaccines do not protect from omicron variant, let alone from severe infections. That most heavily vaccinated countries, already have the highest infection rates, and the highest hospitalization rates, and the highest death from covid-19 rates! That the best way to protect the population may not be through repeated vaccination and revaccination!

What will the conditions for return to school be? The following article from smartpartenting.com.ph is revealing, reporting on the Department of Education’s Executive Order DO034 covering this “mandatory” return to school.

Class sizes in the Philippines range from 15 in select private schools, up to an average of 43, and to more than 50 in some places. The returning children and teachers are all to be compulsorily masked. I cannot imagine how children will be able to hear their teachers in large classrooms, with electric fans running and with masks on, let alone learn. Social distancing and limited face to face interactions will be strictly enforced. How can these restrictions provide a return to quality education, or ensure the psychological wellbeing of children? Most countries have returned to unrestricted learning months ago, and some never stopped regular learning.

The Philippines has had issues with poor learner performance even before covid-19, ranking lowest out of 79 countries in the OECD’s Program for International Student Assessment in 2018. Filipino students posted a mean score of 340 in Reading, 357 in Science and 353 in Mathematics, much lower than the average scores of 487 in Reading and 489 each in Science and Math.

This article from early in 2021 was already discussing Philippines poor education performance being worsened by the covid-19 pandemic lockdowns. How much worse will the situation be now, 1 1/2 years later?

This is the executive order, along with its implementing guidelines. It is long but worth reading in detail for parents and maybe their legal advisors!

Covid-19 prevention measures outlined in the implementing guidelines include:-

For item 52, it is not clear whether the family has to sign a written consent or whether it will be enough for the learner (child) to sign a consent; it would appear that the child can sign and be vaccinated immediately.

Parents who don’t want their child vaccinated need ensure their child is fully briefed on their family decision, and to clearly inform the school in writing of their wishes in advance.

Home schooling is legal in the Philippines and there are many options available for Quality homeschooling, which offer various levels of support, and which can ease new homeschoolers, and even working parents into successful homeschooling. While our children were always low risk from covid-19 infection, they have lost out badly in terms of education, socialization, and psychological wellness over the past 2 1/2 years.

Parents may need to find new ways of “keeping our children safe” not from covid-19, but from the dangerous covid-19 vaccines which are all risk and no benefit for children, and from the insanity and consequences of theses covid-19 pandemic measures which still continue unabated.