A teachers’ group said the Department of Education’s decision to extend classes until July will only “extend” students’ suffering amid the continuing pandemic.
Extending the school year without addressing the basic problems of the Duterte administration's distance learning program would only extend the suffering and hardships of teachers, learners and their parents.
EXTENDING the school year would only mean “extended suffering” for parents and students who are still trying to cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, a teachers’ group said.
ACT Teachers party-list Representative France Castro made the statement Thursday (March 4) after the Department of Education (DepEd) announced its plan to extend the current school year to July 10.
"Extending the school year without addressing the basic problems of the Duterte administration's distance learning program would only extend the suffering and hardships of teachers, learners and their parents," Castro said in a statement.
"If the DepEd genuinely wants to give learners academic ease, it would have provided adequate learning materials and prepared a curriculum that is appropriate for blended distance learning," she added.
Castro also reiterated the group’s push for DepEd to conduct pilot testing of limited face-to-face classes as the government started its massive COVID-19 vaccination program.
The lawmaker added the agency must be provided with an adequate supplemental budget to provide for all teaching and learning resources needed in distance learning as well as to ensure the provision of health protection and payment of just benefits to education workers.
"As long as the DepEd and the Duterte administration fails to make these basic concrete steps in education, there would be no genuine academic ease in education the government will continue to fail to provide our learners their right to safe, quality and accessible education for all," she said. (ONT)