Education as an Integral Part of Ending COVID-19

Joshua B. Wijangco

The year 2020 had made a negative impact on the lives of people around the world. Economy was in a stand still, schools were closed down, people were forced to stay in their homes and even work from homes. But the greatest impact this global health crisis had affected is the education system especially in the Philippines.

One of the greatest threats we are experiencing in the Philippines is the accumulating number of COVID19 cases everyday. What is the reason behind this? One of the major reasons why we have this steady increase of cases is not because of the virulence or the infectious nature of the disease. This is because majority of the people in both rural and urban areas are not properly educated on the chain of infection of COVID-19.

In a country which holds education as an integral part of its culture, I am wondering why some people are not very keen on being educated on this matter. In my observation, majority of people would rather read and watch information on COVID-19 through social media rather than do research on reliable scientific articles. This activity is very dangerous. Not all that is written on the internet are reliable and peer reviewed. Some articles in the internet are tagged as hoax or fake news which may bring unforeseeable health threat among us.

When people rely on information which are not valid, and reliable, we may tend to affect not only ourselves but people around us by sharing something that may piqued our interest especially if that article is counter transference on our experience.

By properly equipping ourselves with the correct or accurate knowledge about this pandemic, we can understand and follow the recommendations of health experts why we need to stick with our existing health protocols and rather not think of any conspiracies circulating on the internet that COVID-19 is a biological tool to bring down the economy of different nations.

Pandemics and viruses are natural part of the world. This is not the first time the world had experienced such health crises. What we must do is educate ourselves with the information that are scientifically factual, supported with researches and sourced from proper health authorities like WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION and not from any social media influencers who are giving false details just so to gain fame and monetization from views.

We may not know that the answer for eradicating diseases like COVID-19 is only the preparedness thru education and not pharmacological prescriptions.

--oOo-

The author is Master Teacher at Pampanga High School, Division of City of

San Fernando, Pampanga