particularly those from poor households, worried more about tuition,
gadgets, internet reliability, as well as future job prospects compared to
their more affluent peers.81 In 2020, a group called Samahan ng
Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) monitored 20 cases of deaths among
students in that school year that are linked to distance learning.82 The
group claimed that of the total, 19 were students from Grade 6 to third-year
college, and of the 19, 17 were suicides, while one death was due to
electrocution and another was due to a vehicular accident.83
31.
With fewer employment opportunities and more people competing for
available jobs, young workers will find themselves competing with adults
who have gained more relevant experience.84 The school-to-work
transition has indeed become more difficult for the youth, especially with
the current worldwide pandemic. Disruptions to education and training
have profound effects on the youth’s employability and employment, such
as in the form of increased household work burdens due to school
closures, particularly for women, who, in the context of limited family
resources, also have a greater possibility of withdrawing from school as
their education is deemed less important than men’s.85 Disruption is also
evident in the form of exploitative work of young children in the household,
even child labor, due to reduced household income caused by the
pandemic.86
Legal Framework
32.
The ILO provides two (2) frameworks to define school-to-work transition.
On the one hand, Framework I defines school-to-work transition as “the
passage of a young person from the end of schooling to the first regular or
satisfactory job.” On the other hand, Framework II defines it as “the
passage of a young person from the end of schooling to the first decent or
satisfactory employment.”87 Framework I only requires a regular or
satisfactory job, while the stricter Framework II calls for decent or
satisfactory employment. Regular employment merely provides for the
duration of contract or expected length of tenure, whereas decent
employment outlines a set of criteria for work to be considered decent (e.g.,
job security, entitlements, a monthly wage, etc.).88 Meanwhile, the United
Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) offers several indicators to measure
school-to-work transition results, which include increased probability of
employment, a better quality of employment, increased business
performance, reduced time to find a job, increased ability to retain a job,
and increased earnings or consumption.89
Doris Dumlao-Abadilla, Study weighs pandemic toll on students’ mental health, INQUIRER.NET, Jan. 2, 2022, available at
https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1537244/study-weighs-pandemic-toll-on-students-mental-health#ixzz7WYVXF0Rf (last
accessed June 21, 2022).
82
Ding Cervantes, Group assails DepEd, cites 17 student suicide cases, THE PHILIPPINE STAR, Oct. 28, 2020, available at
https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2020/10/28/2052834/group-assails-deped-cites-17-student-suicide-cases (last
accessed June 21, 2022).
83
Id.
84
Asian Development Bank and the International Labour Organization, supra note 65.
85
Id.
86
Id.
87
International Labour Office, ILO School-to-Work Transition Survey: A Methodological Guide: Module 1: Basic Concepts,
Roles, and Implementation Process, at 12, (2009), available at https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/--ed_emp/documents/instructionalmaterial/wcms_140857.pdf (last accessed May 26, 2022).
88
Id. at 8.
89
United Nations Children’s Fund, supra note 47.
81
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