THE SCARS of the COVID-19 pandemic are not only measured in hospital records or economic downturns — they are also etched in the minds of children who lost critical years of learning. In Iloilo Province, the Department of Education (DepEd) Schools Division has confirmed what parents and teachers feared: literacy and numeracy rates fell sharply between 2019 and 2021, leaving thousands of learners struggling with the most basic academic skills.
That is why the “Kasimaryo Ko, Tudluan Ko” program, recently launched in the province, could not have come at a more crucial time. By targeting not only out-of-school youth but even adults up to 65 years old, it addresses a painful truth — that pandemic learning losses widened an already existing gap, dragging down both students and communities. This is a remedial class and more – it is a recovery mission.
Before the pandemic, Iloilo was already grappling with functional literacy concerns. The lockdown years only worsened the situation. Limited access to gadgets, poor internet connectivity, and the economic hardships of families meant that learning from home was often no learning at all. As Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Ernesto F. Servillon Jr. acknowledged, literacy levels plummeted because classroom engagement shrank to less than eight hours a day, while poverty and hunger further hampered children’s ability to absorb lessons.
Today, Iloilo is working its way back. The report of 450 schools with zero non-readers is a bright spot, but it also underscores how much ground remains to be covered in the province’s 1,172 schools. Programs like “Kasimaryo Ko, Tudluan Ko” and “Tib-ong Bumulutho” are urgent, deliberate responses to close this learning gap. Their focus on both in-school remediation and community-based education is precisely what is needed to confront the lingering damage of the pandemic years.
But the lesson here is larger than Iloilo. Every province in the country has suffered pandemic learning losses, and every province must find creative, community-driven ways to respond. Iloilo’s model — mobilizing barangay captains, Sangguniang Kabataab leaders, and even Department of Labor and Employment interns to extend teaching beyond school walls — deserves replication. It demonstrates that education recovery is not DepEd’s task alone but a shared responsibility.
The consequences of failing to act are dire. A generation of children who cannot read fluently or handle basic math will face limited opportunities in the workforce, perpetuating cycles of poverty and underdevelopment. Pandemic learning losses must not be allowed to harden into permanent deficits.
Iloilo’s response reminds us that recovery is possible, but only if we treat education as an emergency that requires sustained investment, partnership, and urgency. The pandemic has passed, but its impact on learning is far from over. If we do not act decisively, the cost will be borne not only by today’s learners but by the province’s future.
