Inaccessible Education

Education serves as our foundation. Here we are taught a lot of basic principles and processes based on logic. Having education can lead to scientific literacy and awareness of sources. Because of these foundations, people are not easily swayed by social media influences and false claims. This fosters their critical thinking and literacy in research. This helps the people easily identify misinformation and help the process of discernment. 

Those who do not have access to education have less research abilities and media literacy. Research skills are necessary in order to verify information, gather facts, and create fact-based opinions and theories. These people are more inclined to believe what they first see and hear, despite logic and reasoning saying otherwise. 

Formal Education provides clarification for false claims and misinformation. Examples are programs such as SexEd and Family Planning which aims to spread awareness about a usually taboo topic with a lot of false claims or incorrect beliefs surrounding it. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority as of Jan 2023, 5.4% of teenagers aged 15-19 have already been pregnant. These cases are common in sectors of the Philippines where education is inaccessible.

Misinformation is incredibly harmful despite the intent.

 Examples would be during the COVID pandemic, a lot of people were divided on who to believe and what to do due to the amount of misinformation circulating online. Was COVID real? Were masks needed? Does the vaccine cause cancer? Ano nga ba ang dapat paniwalaan?

Simple false health claims are also an example where practices are promoted with no health benefits at all. A lot of Filipinos also fell into bogus health scams. Are there any scientific backups to virginity soap bars?

Misinformation in life-or-death situations could cause you to do things that worsen the disaster. Wrongful procedures in first aid and emergencies could end up causing the death of many. It can also be as simple as: do you ice your nose during nosebleeds or not?

It could also be detrimental financially. Without basic knowledge and financial literacy, people could easily be swayed into scams.

It also has a societal impact. During the Philippine elections, A lot of baseless claims, lies, and incorrect information was relayed to candidates to ruin each other’s image. History was also distorted, and the people were confused who or not to believe in.

It also creates a social divide and can cause discrimination. Are stereotypes surrounding certain nationalities factual? Without exposure and awareness about different cultures and practices, people would assume based on their own knowledge and bias.

Without a reliable source of information, society could end up “normalizing the abnormal” where harmful, absurd, and incorrect beliefs are accepted as common practice.

 Quality education provides exposure on how to discern information as well as teach us how the world works. When people are deprived of this, they resort to other means to search for answers. The lack of access to formal and quality education leads to people resorting to other media for information. In the search for answers, people will lean towards other sources of information such as their peers, social media, and television that may often contain misinformation.

Through education, curiosity is kindled- and without it, it kills. False claims, wrongful beliefs, and misinformation spreads throughout the real world and the internet. It is important for critical thinking and literacy to be taught to everyone to avoid the gaps caused by the lack of it.