Senator Win Gatchalian on Monday said the lack of face-to-face classes for more than a year took a toll on the social skills of children.
Gatchalian, who recently visited participating schools in Valenzuela for the limited face-to-face classes, shared the observation of teachers and school officials in the city.
He said the learning recovery should not only focus on academics but should give equal emphasis on the social and emotional development of children.
“We saw the face-to-face classes is important not only because of academics because they can also learn from here their social skills,” Gatchalian added.
Earlier this year, Gatchalian filed Senate Bill No. 2355 or the Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) Program Act to institute a nationwide learning recovery program.
The proposed ARAL program aims to benefit struggling learners and focus on the most essential learning competencies on Language, Mathematics, and Science. Macon Ramos-Araneta
Aside from helping learners with academic recovery, the proposed program also seeks to provide the adequate provision of nutritional, social, emotional, and mental health support to learners.
While the Omicron variant of COVID-19 has not been detected in the country, Gatchalian emphasized that its threat should not be taken lightly as more schools join the pilot implementation of limited face-to-face classes.
On December 6, over 2,000 learners from 28 schools in the National Capital Region participated in the dry run of limited face-to-face classes.