Netizens react to video of 9-year-old schoolboy struggling to read Filipino passage
Public school classroom in the Philippines
A video clip shared by journalist Barnaby Lo of a 9-year-old schoolboy struggling to read a passage in Filipino after two years of distance learning trended on Twitter on Saturday, with netizens weighing in on who’s to blame for the pathetic state of Philippine education.
“Two years of distance learning and this is the effect. 9-year old Kian, who’s going to be in 4th grade when school opens in the Philippines on Aug. 22, struggles to read simple text. 90% of Filipino kids his age are the same, accdg to a World Bank study. Story soon on Al Jazeera,” tweeted Barnaby Lo (@barnabychuck) in the caption accompanying the video.
Many netizens responded by pointing the finger at the Department of Education’s (DepEd) “mass promotion” policy, which apparently encourages teachers to promote all students to the next grade, even if they fail to satisfy minimum competency requirements expected of their current grade level.
Others blamed the parents for not bothering to sit down and teach their children basic literacy skills but relying on teachers to do all the lifting.
Some acknowledged that literacy challenges have existed long before the pandemic and that the discontinuation of face-to-face classes only exacerbated the problem.
A few questioned the wisdom of using outdated teaching strategies in online settings, while others blamed the inequitable access to technology for continued lowering of quality of learning and teaching.
