CHILDREN'S HEALTH AND EDUCATION

Public policy and government programs must promote development that not only fulfills the material needs of citizens, but also affirms human dignity and freedom, integrity in governance, national sovereignty, and the spiritual dimension of human beings. 

• After two years of school closure because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government reopened public and private schools in August 2022. Schools transitioned to full five-day, in-person classes in November 2022. Going to school is central to children’s development, health, and well-being, which school closures and shifts to online and blended learning worsened.
  
  

• The Department of Education (DepEd) implemented a “no discrimination policy” which means that children can attend face-to-face classes regardless of their vaccination status. Children's participation in in-person classes have been found to have positive effects on their growth and development.
  
  

• To fight malnutrition and stunting among children, the Marcos Jr. administration launched the Philippine Multisectoral Nutrition Project (PMNP) in March 2023. The ₱12-billion project, funded by the World Bank, is implemented by the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) with local government units until 2026. In collaboration with other government agencies, non-government organizations (NGOs), and other stakeholders, the multisectoral project intends to alleviate malnutrition through a comprehensive approach with five components: nutrition governance, maternal and child nutrition, adolescent nutrition, food fortification, and behavior change communication. Hopefully, the PMNP will reap long-term positive effects on the Filipino children’s growth and development, and on their overall quality of life.
  
  

• The Department of Health (DOH), together with UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), launched “Chikiting Ligtas 2023: Join the Big Catch Up, Magpabakuna para sa Healthy Pilipinas”. It is a nationwide immunization campaign that aims to increase catch-up on the number of children who partially or entirely missed out on their routine vaccination due to the pandemic. The DOH has allotted funds for vaccinators, risk communications and advocacy activities, and delivery of vaccines and other supplies, which will extend to routine vaccinations until the end of 2023. As support to the program, the WHO and UNICEF assist the DOH in the procurement of vaccines, deployment of more medical staff, engagement with communities to tackle vaccine hesitancy and misinformation, among others. The program is a response to the 2023 State of the World’s Children Report of UNICEF which showed that the Philippines has one million zero-dose children or children who have not received any routine immunization, the second highest in East Asia and the Pacific region and the fifth highest globally. 

• Public schools were found to be unequipped for the resumption of full face-to-face classes.
  
  The reopening of schools was undertaken even if there is “imminent classroom shortage”. DepEd admitted there was a shortage of around 40,000 classrooms all over the country, a problem that the Alliance of Concerned Teacher’s (ACT) said the government failed to address to ensure the safety of students, teachers, and other school personnel as schools reopened. Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte shrugged off such criticisms and said classroom shortage should not be “another excuse to keep our children from schools.”
  
  Teacher shortage also loomed large as schools reopened. ACT says the country’s public schools are “short of 147,000 teachers to decisively reduce the class size to 35 students.” The lack of teachers results in larger class sizes, which can make it difficult for teachers to provide individual attention to students and can lead to lower student achievement.
  
  

• President Marcos Jr. wanted to reexamine the use of mother-tongue based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) to keep Filipinos’ command of the English language. DepEd also proposed to suspend the implementation of the MTB-MLE to address the “learning poverty.” Research has shown that MTB-MLE can improve students’ comprehension as it provides them with a teaching and learning medium that is easily understood and incorporated in their daily lives. Addressing the learning crisis does not require abolishing the MTB-MLE but improving its implementation. The Philippine Institute of Development Studies (PIDS) noted in 2019 that only 9% of schools are ready to implement MTB-MLE. 

Public policy and government programs must correct historical injustice to groups of the marginalized and must promote equality, within the context of love for one’s fellow human beings.

Public policy and government programs must affirm human labor as the most important element of production, establish fair compensation that allows workers to raise families within a decent standard of living, protect the rights of workers to self-organization, and create opportunities for employment and livelihood with dignity.

• Vice President and DepEd Sara Duterte prioritizes the reimposition of the mandatory Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC), which critics say promotes a culture of violence and impunity. Her proposal to reimpose the mandatory ROTC for grades 11 and 12 and tertiary level was added to the president’s legislative agenda. During the president’s first State of the Nation Address (SONA), he called on Congress to pass a law for mandatory ROTC, which was replaced by the National Service Training Program after the death of Mark Welson Chua in 2001. 

Public policy and government programs must safeguard and conserve natural resources and promote production that does not destroy the environment.