Senators on Wednesday questioned the Duterte government’s decision to deny proposals to hold pilot testing of face-to-face classes, saying they should look at the current situation that shows children already out in the streets pretending to be at home during this COVID-19 pandemic.
At Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Committee on Basic Education, Arts and Culture, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian lamented that some children are caught swimming in Pasig River in Sta. Mesa without even observing social distancing.
Sen. Pia Cayetano, on the other hand, said she also observed that in rural areas, many children are already congregating outside of their homes like they used to do during pre-COVID.
In a recent visit in Benguet province, Cayetano also noted there are empty schools that could have been used in face-to-face classes since there were only 32 students recorded there.
“Are we going to wait until August before they can go back to schools? I cannot understand that,” Cayetano pointed out.
Sen. Nancy Binay lamented that the DepEd seems to lack “persuasive powers” to convince the President to bring back students to schools.
“It seems DepEd lacks persuasive powers because you can see the government allowing the children to go to arcade centers, to malls but they can’t go back to schools even at a limited number,” Binay said.
“But they are allowed to go to Boracay, they can now go to Baguio,” she pointed out.
Gatchalian stressedt that as human beings, children are “social animals.” He also admitted that while self-learning modules were designed to continue learning, it does not improve the competencies of students.
“It’s very difficult to prevent them from enjoying Pasig River. So better for them to go inside their schools and get education,” he stressed.
“I think that we’re all in agreement that there’s a need to start this face-to-face classes for our students,” Binay pointed out.
Sen. Imelda “Imee” Marcos, likewise, reiterated her full support to the call: “I am one of those who are against the closing of school because I feel bad for the years that will be wasted.”
Continuing their discussion at the Senate plenary session, Sen. Joel Villanueva said he agrees with Gatchalian that the country “is now facing a learning crisis” noting that pre-COVID, Filipino learners are ranked last in various international assessments among rich countries and even behind in the Southeast Asian region in both Science and Math.
“What will happen to us now if we are getting such data even before the pandemic? How are we preparing?” Villanueva said.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto lamented even massage parlors, and cockpits, adding that the “future of the Philippines is now already at stake.”
“I think it (education sector) is the most essential sector…Knowing that we are the last in the region and one third of all municipalities in the country do not have COVID. Shouldn’t the national government just have a protocol, as a suggestion, for example of how to reopen the schools and allow the local government units (LGUs) which have school boards to begin with?” Recto pointed out.