As a third-world country, the Philippines has a relatively high poverty rate compared to neighboring countries. It dramatically affects the education of many who live below the poverty line. Aside from lack of resources, poverty-stricken students struggle against malnourishment and undernourishment. This hurdle has been going on for years, and the Department of Education has implemented several projects to alleviate such effects of poverty on young learners.
One of these projects is the Feeding Program. However, after almost two years of the pandemic, did it play its role, or was malnourishment once again left unchecked?
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), there is a 3.9 million increase in the poverty rate, which equates to about 23.7%, in the first half of 2021 compared to the first half of 2018, which was around 21.1%. In totality, there are approximately 17.6 million Filipinos living below the poverty line, equating to 16.6% of the country’s total population. Moreover, most of them belong to households that earn below the minimum wage. This, leaves 64% of Filipino families to struggle with food insecurity and involuntary hunger, with two in every ten children below five years of age being underweight. These numbers prove that the Philippines was already in a fierce battle against poverty and malnutrition, but the onslaught of COVID-19 made the struggle even harder by holding back the economy and cutting the employment rate.
On the other hand, under the Republic Act No. 11037, a national feeding program for learners in daycare, kindergarten, and elementary was institutionalized. This law aims to combat hunger and undernutrition for Filipino children while consequently giving them a better opportunity to learn and focus on their academic responsibilities. Under this law, the total population of every school is assessed, and eligible students were chosen to benefit from a regular feeding routine for free. In the process, health professionals and the school administration record the participants’ initial weight and condition and supervise their physical and academic improvement. Several programs were also implemented outside the school following RA 11037 to ensure that children were adequately nourished even in their own homes.
Although face-to-face classes were prohibited and the school-to-student relationship was complex amid the pandemic, the feeding program endured. The DepEd expanded the school-based feeding program to benefit 3.1 million learners for the Academic Year 2021-2022, where foods and other goods were distributed weekly, simultaneously with module retrieval. Other schools around the country even intensified their Gulayan a Paaralan programs to ensure more productivity since the school grounds are almost vacant. In addition, many educators took the initiative to raise their funds and partner with NGOs and LGUs to provide even more goods to students
The poverty and malnutrition rates may have increased during the pandemic, but so did the number of sustainable ways to combat them.
Unfortunately, this fight against malnourishment will endure long after the battle against COVID is concluded. So as long as poverty hasn’t been uprooted, everyone must continue to find a way to shield the children from its effects for as long as necessary and as long as there are hungry mouths to feed
REFERENCES:
- https://neda.gov.ph/statement-on-the-2021-first-semester-official-poverty-statistics/
- https://borgenproject.org/poverty-in-the-philippines-2/
- https://www.deped.gov.ph/2021/07/23/deped-eyes-3-1m-beneficiaries-for-school-based-feeding-program-for-the-upcoming-school-year/
- https://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra2018/ra_11037_2018.html
By: MARIA ROSARIO P. CUBALES |TEACHER II | CATANING ELEMENTARY S
