I am glad that our education system is starting to move toward normalcy. With the vaccination push and the retreat of the Covid-19 virus, we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, sort of.
My second son, who is in high school, is still doing classes online. But his brother has missed classes in college for two semesters already. He enrolled in a civil engineering course at the Cebu Institute of Technology University but asked permission from us to stop attending online classes. I did not force him to enroll because, like him, I felt that a civil engineering course could not be pursued well online. I observed how online classes were done in his drawing subject and felt some things were lacking as far as true learning was concerned.
The delay in my son’s college education is unfortunate. He was one of those who graduated under the K-to-12 curriculum and had to undergo two years of senior high school. Then the pandemic hit. The timing wasn’t good, especially because the number of school years had just been expanded. Then for me, there is the uncertainty brought about by retirement.
This was the same feeling of uncertainty I felt when I was in a military camp and jobless. That phase ended when I joined radio station dyLA. The uncertainty came back momentarily when I quit the station. Good that I was absorbed by The Freeman, a stint that would later bring me long-term employment with SunStar Cebu.
I once enrolled in an engineering course in college, ready to go through five years in chemical engineering. But I eventually shifted to a political science course, which I deemed easier for the activist that I became later. So I know how painstaking a civil engineering course is for my son, even if he graduated from a public science high school.
Interestingly, the new curriculum offers new possibilities for the current generation of high school grads. They can work directly or pursue higher learning. My son’s training has made me confident he can land a job in the information and communication technology sector. But we, his parents, are old school. We will eventually be pushing him to go back to school once face-to-face classes resume. The pandemic may have delayed his education a bit, but on that, patience is a virtue.
I remember when they were still kids and we bought them their first bicycles. I would painstakingly hold the bike until they learned to use these on their own. Then my youngest would rib me: “Si Papa manudlo, unya siya diay di kamao mo-bike.” I could not help but smile at the comment. I look forward to the day when they get a degree and tell me: “Si Papa maayo kaayo mamugos namog eskwela, unya siya diay wa ka graduate sa college.”
I won’t mind that because I have long been a proud alumnus of the “University of Hard Knocks.” Life has been my teacher and he has been a good one. But I don’t want my sons to go through what I have gone through. That is why the restoration of normalcy is a welcome development for me. Especially in the education sector.