A youth group is pressing the government to implement #AcademicBreak as soon as possible amid the rising coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases in the country that make the education continuity under alternative learning delivery modalities harder for many students.
Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK), in a statement issued Tuesday, April 6, 2021, reiterated its call for #AcademicBreak as it stands up for students and their families who are “being left behind” as the country continues to grapple with impact of the pandemic.
“We have had enough!” SPARK said. “It is violence to force children to answer quizzes and apply business-as-usual yardsticks when we do not know where to get food for tomorrow or if the virus will hit our families next,” it added.
SPARK noted that students have also “had enough.” With their respective councils and organizations across the Greater Manila Area, they have been pushing for an academic break or academic ease.
READ:
“What we immediately need is the time and space to be able to breathe from the madness and irrationality of the Duterte regime and the capitalist system,” SPARK said.
SPARK also commended the faculty unions of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and University of the East (UE) in Manila for supporting the students in demanding an academic break.
“We call on the other faculty unions to lead the studentry and pave the way for a broad united front for our common interests,” SPARK said. “By raising our collective voices, we will move forward where no student is left behind and all faculty members justly enjoy the fruits of their labor,” the group added.
Meanwhile, SPARK denounced the officials of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) in the National Capital Region (NCR)-plus for being “detached from the plight of their constituents.”
Calling DepEd and CHED as “cold-blooded institutions,” SPARK alleged that it is because of “their inefficiency and non-intervention that burdens students to turn to their own school administrations for a much-needed break.”
SPARK also slammed the Duterte administration for its “failed” pandemic response. “We are in ECQ 2.0, at 795,000 COVID cases, thousands dead, and trillions in debt - clearly, they do not have the political will to execute science-based medical solutions, employment plans, and stimulus packages for our families,” the group argued.
While the group is strongly pushing for an academic break, SPARK maintained that providing free mass testing, subsidies, employment plans, and free mass vaccination are also urgent concerns the that the government should address instead of authorizing price hikes of basic goods, wage cuts and retrenchments, increases in tuition and miscellaneous fees while demanding students to “continue with the anti-poor distance learning scheme.”
READ: