One outcome of the pandemic, economic lockdowns and the shift to technology-dependent modes of learning was the enforcement of a “gap year” for these disenfranchised learners.
With the recent resumption of more economic activities and the return to on-campus learning, hope is kindled that youths derailed in their studies during 2020, 2021 and even 2022 are given opportunities to return to school.
Are the disenfranchised assisted to return to learning?
Uneven access to technology has been prominently blamed for difficulties of learners during the pandemic school years. Yet, it cannot be presumed that the resumption of on-campus classes immediately eliminates challenges in learning.
There are other factors complicating learning during the gap years: loss of income of family breadwinners preventing students to continue their studies; inadequacy of parents or guardians to assist the youths with their class modules; and special learning needs that are not met by remote learning.
At the tertiary level, catching up with one’s education becomes more complicated with many working or self-supporting learners needing to balance face-to-face classes and a more intense academic workload with part- or even full-time work to support themselves or family members.
The gap years of the pandemic also changed many youths’ lives beyond the relatively simple binary of staying in school and leaving school to work.
Based on the 2021 Young Adult Fertility and Sexuality Study 5 (YAFS5) conducted by the University of the Philippines Population Institute and the Demographic Research and Development Foundation Inc., 17 percent of the youth respondents aged 15-24 years studied and worked in 2021, an increase from the five percent in 2013.
Fifty-two percent of the youth respondents studied and did not work in 2021, compared to 31 percent in 2013.
Seventeen percent were working and not studying in 2021, contrasting with the 29 percent in 2013.
The same nationally and regionally representative cross-sectional survey also established that 15 percent of the youth respondents were neither studying nor working in 2021. The figure was higher (34 percent) in 2013.
This fourth cluster of youth respondents is worth focusing because the gap years of the pandemic turned them into out-of-school youths who are more vulnerable to remaining left out or left behind in society.
The YASF5 established that lack of funds was cited by 32 percent of the respondents as the reason for not being in school, followed by work to help the family (14 percent), dislike or disinterest in school (10 percent) and condition of pregnancy or cause of someone’s pregnancy (eight percent).
For the YASF5 respondents, duties to perform at home or for the family prevented 23 percent from seeking work; followed by duties to care for one’s baby or children (17 percent), in-school status (10 percent), lack of interest (nine percent) and parents’ opposition to the youths’ attendance of classes during the pandemic (six percent).
Based on the YASF5 findings, stakeholders must recognize that financial difficulties are not the only factors preventing youths from returning to school.
It is striking that pregnancy, childbirth, and young families shift the priorities of young people towards studies. Without graduating from senior high school and college, a young person has diminished chances of competing with peers having better educational attainment.
A young mother or father may also influence their children to have lower aspirations for studies, a cycle that may be perpetuated through generations.
Stakeholders must make policies and programs to respond to youths “lost” during the pandemic to bounce back and catch up.