“The pandemic has further exacerbated the learning crisis for today’s student cohort. Globally, estimates suggest that 70% of 10-year-olds are unable to read and understand a simple text, and this contributes to a loss in potential lifetime earnings by today’s generation of students equivalent to 17% of current gross domestic product level,” the ADB said in itsThe multilateral lender estimated lifetime earning losses among developing Asia’s students may range from 3.9% to 8.
“The Philippines has to address the challenges and barriers to access health and education services. Otherwise, there will be an impending human capital crisis,” said Rhodora G. Alday, director of the Policy Development and Planning Bureau of the Department of Social Welfare and Development . “Within each economy, inequality may also further expand due to differences in access to remote learning tools. Under a medium-efficacy scenario of remote learning, estimates show that students from the poorest wealth quintile are expected to have losses in future earnings that are 47% higher than those of the richest students in their economy, while girls may lose about 28% more in future earnings,” it said.
Preliminary results from the Philippine Statistics Authority also estimated poverty incidence among individuals rising to 18.1%, from the 16.7% recorded in 2018. In real terms, around 2.3 million Filipinos have been plunged into poverty between 2018 and 2021. Amid the pandemic, the ADB said lower-income households in the Philippines had greater reductions in their consumption compared to those with higher income, with the bottom 10% seeing a decline of 21.1% in their income and expenditure.
However, the Philippines and other lower middle-income countries in the region are still behind higher-income economies when it comes to research and development expenditure.