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MANILA, Philippines – Senator Imee Marcos insisted on Friday that schools should be opened, lamenting why cockfighting was allowed to resume when education is more important.
“I am really disappointed that cockfighting is even more important to Filipinos than education. Two weeks ago, the booth was opened but the school is still closed, I don’t think it’s correct, ”Marcos said while the Senate’s basic education committee held a hearing on the updates on the opening of classes.
(I was really dismayed to learn that cockfighting seems to be more important than education. Weeks ago, booths were allowed to be opened, but our schools were not.)
“That is why I think it is more important that we give importance to our education. We know that schools are not super broadcasters ”, he added.
(That is why I think we should give more importance to education. We know that schools are not super-diffusers).
In early October, the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases allowed the resumption of cockfighting activities in areas under a modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
However, it would be local government units that would have the final say if licensed cabins can resume operations in their respective jurisdictions.
The IATF has yet to allow in-person classes. As an alternative to continuing education for students, the Department of Education (DepEd) has implemented blended learning for the current school year, which opened on October 5.
DepEd’s solution required schools to switch from a conventional learning setup to ‘hybrid’ learning, which is so named because it involves the combination of distance online learning and modules that are delivered to students’ doorsteps or picked up. on the DepEd sites.
Electronic media transmitted via the Internet, radio and television to mobile devices, computers, television, and radio sets became a necessary component of blended or hybrid learning.
“I have expressed a lot that the schools should have remained open and was very loudly against their closure,” Marcos said during the hearing.
He stated that “data from other countries verify the fact that educators can work safely in schools and that schools can be the safest place for children during a pandemic.”
“In fact, the infection levels in schools simply reflect the infection levels in their communities,” he added.
Furthermore, he said, “the tragic suicide narration attributed to DepEd, incorrectly or correctly, simply confirms the problems that arise with mental illness and deprives children of the formative social and peer relationships that are so important.”
He also said that distance education is taking its toll on families, particularly working mothers “who are unable to teach children at home is too overwhelming to bear.”
“It is important that we finally open our schools,” he added.
DepEd undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said there are factors that need to be considered before face-to-face classes are allowed.
These considerations include epidemiological evidence among students in the basic education age group regarding the transmission of COVID-19.
“We have to assess the risks associated with taking our children to school,” the DepEd official also said.
However, Malaluan said that the reintroduction of face-to-face classes “will be crucial to the learning process.”
“Even if distance learning can happen, the social aspect of learning together, face to face, with the teacher and among classmates, is still very important with this highly social activity,” he said.
The DepEd is now finalizing its report and recommendation on the issue that would be presented by the Secretary of Education, Leonor Briones, to President Rodrigo Duterte, according to Malaluan.
/ MUF
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