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The president of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, Senator Win Gatchalian. Senate PRIB file photo / Albert Calvelo
MANILA, Philippines – “We cannot claim a complete victory.”
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said this a day after classes officially opened Monday with teachers and students struggling with internet connectivity in the country’s shift to distance education amid the pandemic.
“I cannot claim complete victory yesterday because if you look at the point of view of parents and teachers, the lack of Internet connectivity became the obstacle,” said Gatchalian, chair of the Senate basic education committee, in an interview on the ABS-CBN news channel. on Tuesday.
“In Valenzuela, we launched our own broadcast school, but without Internet connectivity, it is very difficult to bring that to the homes of our voters, so I can only say that it is a partial victory when it comes to the opening of classes” added. .
In her message for the opening of public school classes, Education Secretary Briones said the Philippines is claiming a “victory” against COVID-19 by opening the school year amid the pandemic.
The opening of the school year was initially scheduled for August 24, but was moved to October 5.
According to Briones, the Department of Education (DepEd) so far registered more than 24.7 million students who have been enrolled for this school year, representing 89 percent of the 27.85 million registered students last year.
Telecommunications companies need to ‘step up’
With the shift to online learning, Gatchalian urged telcos to “step up” and improve their services.
“Telecommunications companies should step up. It is now up to our telcos to step up and make sure connectivity is available to all of our students … We have to use all the tools available and I am looking at the point of view of our parents and students and myself. I’ve seen first-hand that connectivity is a problem, ”said the senator.
“This is a revelation for us, moving forward, because if you want to enter the new normal or the best normal, we have to improve connectivity,” he added.
In addition to online classes, in-person delivery of learning materials to students’ homes will also be used.
Teaching with the use of radio and television, on the other hand, will be done for students who do not have access to a computer or the Internet.
Gatchalian stressed the importance of ensuring that both modules and radio and television broadcasts are delivered effectively to students.
“We have to go back to basics and the basics here is to make sure our children have the modules that they can follow and use to learn and another basic is that our teachers are equipped to assess the student and also to do other modules. or other devices so that they can measure the student if he is learning or not, ”said the senator.
“Another important component is radio and television transmission. We have to make sure that this transmission is communicated correctly because I also detected some students who do not know what time a subject will leave ”, he added.
However, Gatchalian praised DepEd for its “best effort” in opening classes.
“It is a challenge. We seek to teach 23 million students, equip 900,000 teachers and non-teaching personnel with the necessary tools to achieve the opening of classes,” he said.
“This is really a great challenge,” he added.
JPV
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