A youth group on Monday called on the government to implement a national “academic break” in all levels - both in public and private schools - in the aftermath of back-to-back typhoons which ravaged the country. 

The Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK), in a statement, is calling for #AcademicBreakNow or suspending the conduct of classes for all students under the basic education to the tertiary level. 

“In light of recent events, the question of what to do with the current semester has begun making the rounds among student bodies in many schools and universities,” SPARK said. 

SPARK joined other students nationwide in demanding for a “national academic break” until several conditions have been met. For the group, classes in all levels should be suspended until “all flood water has subsided.

SPARK said the national #AcademicBreakNow should be in place until “all telecom and power infrastructure ravaged by the typhoons has been repaired” and that “all students and their families have fully recovered from the multitude of disasters they had to go through.” 

The government, SPARK said, cannot expect students to go through distance learning in evacuation centers and with wide scale internet and power outages. “The studentry and their families need time and resources to recover from these crises and this can only begin with an immediate and effective break from all classes, in all levels, nationwide,” it added. 

For the group, education agencies such as the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) have not been addressing the pressing concerns of students especially under the distance learning set-up which is being implemented this school year as a response to the COVID-19 crisis. 

Despite measures to implement academic ease, SPARK said the current semester should be suspended as soon as possible. “What we need, instead, is an academic break that covers all Filipino students, for the sake of lessening the suffering of ordinary people and the youth and let them breathe.” 

Students from the Ateneo de Manila University had earlier expressed their intention to go on “academic strike” starting Nov. 18. They plan to refrain from submitting their academic requirements until the government “heeds the people's demands for proper calamity aid and pandemic response.” 

SPARK said it encourages and supports all initiatives by student governments and campus organizations to push for an academic break. “Any hope for recovery will be long and difficult, all the more making it legitimate and just to demand for an academic break,” it said.