LAST Wednesday (May 26), OpinYon Live had as one of its guest speakers an AB Communications student from San Juan de Letran College-Calamba, who spoke on the recent pronouncement by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) that a "flexible learning" will be a part of the new normal and face-to-face classes will be a thing of the past.
The reasoning of CHED chairman Prospero de Vera is that schools have already invested in online learning systems and to go back to the traditional method of learning would be a waste of money and resources.
However, many students – including the one we interviewed on “OpinYon News Ngayon” - say the current online system has deprived them of the opportunity to hone the skills they need once they enter the workforce.
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So many questions have floated since CHED made the announcement.
One, what about courses such as medicine, nursing, or vocational courses where hands-on training is a vital part of the curricula?
In fact, some colleges specializing in these courses are already preparing to go back to limited face-to-face classes as things slowly go back to normal.
I believe the flexible system like CHED envisions may work on the elementary or high school level, but not on the tertiary level where we prepare our youth to become an active part of our labor force.
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Other stakeholders also believe that the current setup has also deprived certain sectors of our population from access to quality education.
And I’m not talking about students from rural areas or urban poor sectors who do not have access to the Internet or even have a computer or cellphone.
While researching for this column, I stumbled upon an article about concerns made by special education teachers in Canada about the hybrid system of learning.
Physically or mentally challenged students need a lot more attention in their education than the average student, which is why some teachers believe that their students had “gotten less” in quality education over the last year with the hybrid setup in some Canadian schools.
“All the way through, one or both groups have gotten less. This has not been a great situation anywhere, but the parents of my students are also trying to work at home, and I shouldn’t have to rely on them the whole day to be with their child one-on-one,” a teacher explained.
Added to this privacy concerns as family members for online students will be able to see into the classroom, exposing private moments for the in-class students, as well as in-class students being able to see into the private homes of their peers.
“I don’t think it’s ethical to have any of that on display for someone else’s family. It does not preserve the dignity of those children,” another teacher said.
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While the current education setup has been beneficial in some aspects, I don’t think we can manage to implement this on a permanent basis once things go back to normal.
To me, personal interaction between students and teachers, as well as personal experience, is still the best way to instill in our youth a sense of community and unity – two aspects of our society that had been curtailed with the pandemic.