Anticipating longer lockdowns due to the “absence of a comprehensive medical solution” to curb the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the national government is urged to provide gadgets and connectivity allowance to learners and teachers.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), in a statement issued Thursday, April 8, called on the Duterte administration to urgently provide gadgets and internet support to students and teachers in aid of learning continuity.
“Our students need gadgets and internet allowance now for learning to continue amid and beyond the ECQ ,” said ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio.
The National Capital Region (NRC) along with four of its adjacent provinces - Cavite, Bulacan, Laguna and Rizal - are currently under extended ECQ until April 11 due to the surge in COVID-19 cases in these areas.
ACT said that due to the ECQ enforced, the distribution of printed self-learning modules (SLMs) - for students without access to the internet and gadgets - was also cancelled in some areas.
Given this, ACT demanded the national government to provide aid to education by providing gadgets and internet allowances to millions of learners in need.
“The youth’s right to education can’t continue to suffer due to the government’s many failures—to provide the needs of distance learning, to give sufficient aid to low-income households, to contain the pandemic, and many others,” Basilio said. “These must be addressed now, before it’s too late,” he added.
ACT is proposing for the allocation of supplemental P13.33 billion budget for tablets and 10 GB monthly data provision for the poorest five percent of learners nationwide.
Meanwhile, ACT is also pressing for the grant of internet allowance teachers.
Based on its own ground monitoring, ACT said teachers are “heavily burdened” with the expenses of work-from-home set up as they shell out their own money for gadgets, internet connection, and higher cellphone load expenses and electricity bills.
“Many of those who are required to report to school or deliver modules in communities also shoulder higher transportation expenses,” Basilio said.
Basilio also alleged many teachers are having financial difficulties because the Duterte administration “has yet to properly compensate” them with just benefits. “They continue to wait for the release of their 2019 Performance-Based Bonus (PBB) while they are required to work for 14 months straight this school year without a day of leave benefits,” he ended.