A federation of teachers has urged the government to uphold the right to education and information by putting Knowledge Channel back on air.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines said that in the spirit of upholding press freedom and the people's right to information as well as the media's role in education amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it backs the Knowledge Channel Foundation Inc.'s bid to extend its services and resources to the Department of Education (DepEd) as the public education system shifts to remote learning in response to the pandemic.
Premiering in 1999, Knowledge Channel has since delivered quality educational content, developed in collaboration with the Education agency, to millions of children and youth.
In its 21 years on air, it provided access to learning opportunities to 7.3 million households -- up until the franchise renewal of its owner, the ABS-CBN Corp., was denied by Congress early this year.
ACT said that its household reach "dramatically dropped to 1.8 million as the network went off-air, and may continue to plunge" with the recent order from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to recall ABS-CBN TV and radio frequencies.
“The ill-equipped education system is already grappling with the requisites for distance learning modalities coupled with the development of materials in line with the streamlined K-12 curriculum called the Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELCs),” said ACT.
“As such, we see no reason for the government to refuse Knowledge Channel’s offer to freely utilize its 1,500 professionally made educational videos based on the current curriculum that are available in various platforms: broadcast, portable media library, online sites, and Knowledge TV,” it added.
For ACT, these are “valuable resources” especially at this particularly trying time for the country’s education system with with the “dearth of quality materials” from DepEd, the little time the country has before schools open, and the lack of substantial material support from the national government.
“To deny the kind of service Knowledge Channel has to offer is to deny Filipino children and youth their fundamental right to accessible quality education especially at a time of pandemic,” ACT said.