A group of education workers on Wednesday, Nov. 16, warned that there would be “no rebound” for education with the “half-baked” implementation of 100 percent in-person classes.

In a press conference, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines presented its assessment of the two-week implementation of full face-to-face classes which started on Nov. 2.

The group also expressed doubt that “learning can recover” with the way in-person classes are being implemented. ACT also noted that government efforts for the program were “half-baked” based on the reports it received from teachers nationwide.

“If our government officials think that learning gaps can be automatically be addressed once the students set foot in school, they are wrong,” ACT Chairperson Vladimer Quetua said.

Citing reports from the field, ACT shared that it received 85 reports on severe classroom shortages which forced schools to hold classes even in hallways, bleachers, stages, tents, and halved classrooms.

Teachers, the group added, also complained that the heat and the noise in these makeshift classrooms make it hard for the learners to focus on their lessons.

ACT also received 101 reports on lacking school furniture and 120 reports on inadequate books and modules.

“The most number of reports, at 167, are about the excessive teaching and non-teaching workload of teachers, while 161 reports accounted on the severity of learning gaps and difficulties in learning recovery,” it added.

Given these, the group alleged that the Marcos government’s “band aid solutions” failed to give learners a safe and orderly back to school as decades-old shortages in education due to state neglect remain unresolved and bog learning recovery down.

“How to actually bridge the learning gaps without a sound and evidence-based education recovery program and in a less than ideal setting is a monumental challenge that teachers are left to tackle, while they themselves have been loaded with more teaching and ancillary duties,” Quetua said.

Quetua also pointed out that for one grading period, teachers have taught in classes with learners who “hardly spoke and performed poorly” in tasks and tests.

“It is obvious that there is a wide gap between what they have already learned and what is in the lesson menu for their current grade, and it shows in their grades for the first quarter of the school year,” he added.