To monitor the initial implementation of safe school reopening in the country, a multi-stakeholder group composed of education experts, teachers, parents, and students on Monday, Dec. 6 launched a back-to-school monitoring campaign.
The Movement for Safe, Equitable, Quality, and Relevant (SEQuRe) Education launched the “Bantay Balik-Paaralan” campaign in time for the reopening of 177 more schools in the third week of the pilot run of limited face-to-face classes in basic education.
“We encourage all stakeholders to actively monitor the conduct of limited face-to-face classes on the ground and report their observations through the Bantay ‘Balik-Paaralan’ hotlines so that we can recommend measures on how we can hasten and improve safe school reopening,” said SEQuRe Education Movement convenor Mercedes Arzadon.
The campaign has hotline, reporting, and research components which aims to observe and assess the government’s limited face-to-face program in the aim of pushing for a more extensive and speedy safe school reopening in the country.
“This is our chance to address the many problems that the pandemic and the school closures have brought to the education sector, it is important that we do this right,” she explained.
Arzadon said that the “Bantay Balik-Paaralan” project is currently recruiting correspondents from all areas where public and private schools and higher education institutions participating in the pilot run of limited face-to-face classes are located.
Correspondents can be teachers, learners, parents, community residents, church people, local government workers, and others who can forward reports and observations regarding school reopening in their localities.
Arzadon explained that they have also opened various hotline platforms to gather reports from the public.
SEQuRe Education said that the public can forward their reports and observations through the following hotline numbers: 09674461266; 09176395942; 09614215053; 09691523006; and 09975166409.
They can also send messages to https://facebook.com/SEQuReEducationMovt or [email protected].
Others may also submit their reports via their online monitoring tool at https://bit.ly/BantayBalikEskwela.
Towards the end of the two-month pilot run, Arzadon said that SEQuRe Education Movement will “study and analyze the reports, then come up with an assessment of the initial school reopening program, and forward recommendations for its expanded implementation and new normal education.”