'Pasang-awa?': Nat'l powers receive 'lowest marks' from education stakeholders

As challenges in education persisted up to school year closing, the current administration - in general - received the "lowest marks" from teachers and parents of students in public schools in relation to their performance of respective duties for the implementation of distance learning this school year.

The Movement for Safe, Equitable, Quality and Relevant Education (SEQuRe Education Movement) on Thursday, July 15, said that based on the survey it conducted, the the Duterte administration, the Department of Education (DepEd), lawmakers, and other social actors to education got unsatisfactory marks from education stakeholders.

This, the group said, was due to their inability to address the challenges under the distance learning program which was implemented amidst the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation in the country.

The ratings were given in non-representative nationwide online surveys conducted by the SEQuRe Education Movement among public school teachers, students, and their parents.

The said survey was conducted from June 25 to July 2, 2021 in order to assess the one-year implementation of the distance learning program in public basic education in the country.

The survey was participated in by 1,278 teachers, 1,299 Grades 4 to 12 students, and 3,172 parents who largely came from the National Capital Region (NCR).

“Only about 36 percent to 44 percent of public school teacher respondents gave the national powers passing marks for their responses to distance learning, while the majority gave them either ‘fail’ or ‘incomplete’ grades,” SEQuRe Education Movement said.

The group said that more parent-respondents - from 63 to 68 percent - gave “pass” marks to the national government. However, they remained to be “the lowest-graded” among actors that include teachers, parents, local schools and local government units (LGUs).

The survey showed that the problems identified in the earlier SEQuRe Education Movement multi-stakeholder survey conducted last year.

In December, the network warned against a looming learning crisis which has “persisted until the end of the school year.”

These problems, the group said, have also resulted in “more hardships to stakeholders and dismal learning outcomes for students.”

SEQuRe Education Movement pointed out that these problems were mainly brought about by “insufficient planning, preparation, and funding support from the national government.”

Given this, the network urged the national powers to “make up” for teachers, students and parents who were “practically left to fend for themselves after being thrust in an unfamiliar scheme, sans the necessary means while health and economic crisis raged on.”

Based on the adjustment school calendar of DepEd, the school year (SY) 2020-2021 formally ended on July 10.