The impact of school closures on in-person learning — mental health challenges, food insecurity unhealthy weight gain, and immunization delay — is tremendous.
These visible consequences of school closures are indicators of long-term outcomes, including decreased life expectancy for Filipino schoolchildren. Across the country, many school districts have eased restrictions, reopened schools, and returned to business as usual, and vaccine eligibility has expanded to include children five years and older. It is easy to focus primarily on these hopeful signs of progress during the pandemic and fall back on the argument that children are resilient. However, we cannot hesitate in our focus on children. Children are resilient, but this resiliency requires individual support and societal investment.
I strongly believe that the benefits of in-person learning for children and families outweigh the risks of the spread of disease in the school environment. Getting children back to school and focusing on their sense of safety, self-worth, and academic confidence is the right strategy in the Department of Education’s (DepEd) learning recovery plan. It is on this occasion that the school nurse plays a pivotal position to implement the mitigation measures that allow for a safe return to in-person learning.
Our school nurses will hit the ground running at the beginning of the new school year. In addition to the usual tasks of ensuring compliance with immunizations, obtaining medications, and training staff for emergencies, the school nurse will need to be prepared with a COVID prevention and mitigation response. It is imperative to begin collaborating with school administration and staff to plan for layered prevention strategies that adapt to levels of community transmission.
The COVID-19 pandemic has provided the opportunity for the importance of the school nurse role to be front and center. DepEd may consider realigning its annual budget to hire more school nurses. Student recovery depends on the return to in-person learning with robust socioemotional support. School districts can provide a safe return to school by promoting vaccination and testing in schools. The alignment of public health and education (a timely move by both the local health boards and local school boards) has never been more important. It is truly appropriate that every school community can coordinate with wider community resources to promote physical health, academic achievement, and social-emotional health by safely returning students to school.
JEROME BABATE
Beta Nu Delta Nursing Society