Decline in Covid cases, vaccination, and education (Sabong News)
Author
Rikki Mathay
Date
MARCH 23 2022
The Philippines has an average of 506 reported new Covid-19 infections in a day. This welcome decline in cases can be attributed to vaccination efforts with 67.4 percent of our population having been vaccinated, and now, we see children aged five to 11 years old receiving additional protection from the virus with the Department of Health’s “Resbakuna” program.
With 8.7 million children vaccinated worldwide, this number can put our minds at ease when it comes to pediatric vaccination. According to the Reuters Covid Tracker there are “zero deaths attributable to vaccines, 0.00013 percent serious adverse events, 2.4 percent with mild side effects all of whom have recovered, and 97.6 percent without any side effects.” These figures align with the DOH’s statement that Covid-19 vaccines are guaranteed safe, and effective which is backed by scientific research and data.
Hence, Filipino parents are more secure to allow their kids to physically attend school, a far cry from last year when social media was barraged with pleas from parents after the national government suggested to rethink face-to-face classes.
However, a bigger issue lies beneath technical problems in education and that is the lack of access to higher education by many. In Quezon City alone, a whopping 80 percent of the student population do not graduate from college, as per Anak Kalusugan Partylist Representative Mike Defensor.
For the past 10 years, I have been partnering with different educational institutions and have been able to grant at least 3,000 full college scholarships as my personal quest to see as many students uplift their families from poverty through education. But the reality is, there’s only so much private citizens can do to address this issue at a macro level.
At this time, we are reminded of the power we entrust to public officials. As political candidates are wooing voters to their side, I believe one of the best platforms we should examine is one which addresses this social issue.
How does one reverse the data and instead have 80 percent of students in Quezon City college graduates?
Under the right leadership, any local government unit can allocate a budget, not only for free tuition, but also for allowance, school books and school supplies, children’s uniforms and shoes and even transport fares.
These are the seemingly “trivial” problems faced by parents from the lower economic strata, but these are the same factors that contribute to their eventual decision to stop sending their kids to school. Even with the resumption of face-to-face classes, online learning is already an inevitable part of our educational system. In response to this, Defensor and Vice Mayoralty candidate Winnie Castelo plan to distribute free tablets and free WiFi to students in Quezon City. This is merely one example on how matters matter in a candidate’s short and long-term plans for the cities they wish to govern.
