THE FULL reopening of schools, the gradual recovery of the tourism sector and the deployment of more overseas Filipino workers might boost economic growth by up to eight percent, a lawmaker said.

Rep. Zaldy Co attributed the surprise 7.6 percent growth of the Philippine economy in the third quarter of the year to the reopening of schools and the more relaxed travel policies and border restrictions.

The chairman of the committee on appropriations at the House of Representatives said that there are about 25 million students from Kinder to Grade 12 and 900,000 personnel of the Department of Education in addition to around 7 million others in the higher education and technical education sectors.

“Even if only about 80 percent of that return to in-person classes, that would be about 26 million people. That’s a big chunk of the country’s population. Then multiply that 26 million by their daily economic activity and we get good solid GDP growth,” he said.

Co stressed the need to further improve employment figures by having more cooperatives, which are effective job creators.