The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will study the economic and psychological impacts of natural disasters on young Filipino students to help the country strengthen its labor market amid climate change.

ADB said it approved a technical assistance program for the Philippines last Wednesday to conduct the nationwide study on Filipino students aged 7 to 15 who belong to low to middle-income families.

The program costs $225,000.

The results of the study must help the government improve policies on continuous education despite incidences of natural disasters like typhoons so that the country can have a big pool of highly skilled and diverse workers.

Disasters affect learning

“Income shocks which can stem from natural disasters and ensuing economic hardship might compel parents to withdraw their children from school. Such predicament also raises an intriguing gender question related to decision making of parents on whether to withdraw their son/s or daughter/s from school post-disaster,” ADB said.

The multinational institution added students can develop “post-traumatic stress disorder” which leads to poor knowledge and skills acquisition.

According to the 2024 World Risk Index on vulnerability to natural disasters, the Philippines posted a higher risk score of 46.91 from 46.86 last year.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported out-of-school youth in July slightly declined to 13.9 percent of the total young population from 14.8 percent posted in the same month last year.

ADB said it will also study the effects of natural disasters on mothers to ensure policies that will help them produce and raise children healthily. “The individual attributes of parents, particularly mothers, can affect the intergenerational human capital accumulation of children,” it said.

Based on yearly data from the PSA, domestic industries rely on over 40 million workers, while offshore firms hire over 2 million Filipinos.