A FEW members of youth group Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (Spark) held a protest action in front of the gates of the Commission on Higher Education (Ched) to call for an academic freeze until January 2021.
The group called on President Rodrigo Duterte to issue an executive order (EO) declaring an academic freeze until next year to give the government time to prepare for the shift to blended learning as the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) continues to spread nationwide.
“All it takes is for Duterte to sign his name once, and millions of students and their parents will be alleviated from the burden of online classes until January,” said Spark spokesperson John Lazaro.
“Duterte paid much lip service to the idea of postponing classes until a Covid-19 vaccine was found. Now, he must put his pen where his mouth is and act on it,” he added.
The President said he would not allow face-to-face learning sessions until a vaccine is developed.
The group downplayed the postponement of the school opening in public schools to October by the Department of Education (DepEd), saying the two-month adjustment is "not sufficient to close the glaring gaps of the digital divide."
They added that even before the pandemic, the education sector was already in crisis, suffering from sweeping deregulation, commercialization and poor quality.
"The pandemic did not only expose the crisis but was exacerbated further by the insistence of DepEd and Ched to pursue online classes despite severe handicaps in our information technology infrastructure and telecommunication industry," the group said.
During the joint hearing of the Senate committees on finance and economic affairs last May, Ched chairman J. Prospero de Vera pointed out that private higher educational institutions (HEIs) and state universities and colleges (SUCs) are in need of additional financial funding to sustain operations and implement the blended learning system amid the pandemic. (SunStar Philippines)