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MANILA – The Philippine Department of Education (DepEd) rejected Wednesday’s calls for an “academic freeze,” saying the proposal does not consider the effects of the prolonged disruption on children’s learning process.
The Undersecretary of Education, Nepomuceno Malaluan, said the call for an “academic freeze” was an unpopular position considering that more than 24 million students have registered for the next school year, where they will learn through distance education modalities.
“We believe this call for an academic freeze is a populist position that is not popular, because we already have the support of up to 24 million students and their parents who have signed up and are ready to participate in distance learning,” he said Malaluan at a virtual press conference.
“This position is also a myopic position. It does not take into consideration compensation for the prolonged disruption in the learning process of children,” he added.
Malaluan called the proposal “misinformed” and reiterated that online classes would not be the only distance learning modality to be implemented, contrary to the arguments of the proponents.
Under DepEd’s distance learning plans, learning will be delivered through print and digital modules, online classes, television, and radio.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones said distance learning drills are being held in schools to ensure a smooth start to the school year on October 5.
“It’s not like we suddenly open our schools for October 5, because, more or less, we already know what the challenges are and we’ve already addressed them,” he said.
(It’s not like we’re suddenly opening our schools for October 5, because we more or less know what the challenges are and would have addressed them by then.)
More than 31,000 schools have completed their tests before August, while 11,698 schools are scheduled to run simulations before classes begin, according to data from DepEd.
Recently, social media was filled with calls for an “academic freeze”, with the hashtag #AcademicFreezeNow topping the list of trending topics on Twitter Philippines.
A petition on Change.org also called for the start of the school year to be halted “until the digital divide is fully resolved or the results of mass testing and flattening of curves are already empirically evaluated.”
The petition, published by a user with the identifier “Las Ruinas” and addressed to DepEd, argued that “not everyone has the means to adapt to the new type of normal schooling.”
“Having online learning as an alternative to educate students has been shown to be ineffective and insufficient,” he added.
The petition, which is aimed at obtaining 300,000 signatures, has so far garnered more than 233,000 signatories.
The government bans face-to-face classes in the country until a COVID-19 vaccine is available.
The Philippines has confirmed 241,987 COVID-19 cases, as of September 8, of which 52,893 are active. Almost 4,000 have succumbed to the disease.
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