A group of education workers opposed the move to go back to pre-pandemic class sizes by easing physical distancing during the conduct of face-to-face classes.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines today questioned the plan of the Department of Education (DepEd) to ease physical distancing in classrooms for schools under Alert Level 1 areas when the next school year starts in August.

"Matapos ang dalawa at kalahating taon ay babalik lang pala tayo sa dating gawi (After two and a half years, we will just go back to the old ways),” said ACT Philippines spokesperson Vladimer Quetua.

Quetua also pointed out what has the government done to make schools pandemic-resilient and be more prepared for a “better normal.”

“The importance of reducing the class size is even beyond health and safety considerations because an ideal class size is crucial to the quality of education our students get especially now that we are under a severe learning crisis,” he explained.

Quetua also noted that even before the pandemic, ACT already proposed an ideal 35-student class size.

“The current normal class sizes of 40-50-60 students would simply not do,” he said. “Students are too cramped in the classrooms and the teachers can hardly cope with so many students especially since they have to teach on two modalities,” he added.

Quetua noted that based on House Bill 00227 filed by ACT Teachers Partylist and the Makabayan bloc, the country’s public elementary schools’ average class size of 43.9 is “far bigger” than Malaysia’s 31.7, Thailand’s 22.9, Japan’s 23.6 and India’s 40.

“In public high schools, the country registered an average size of 56.1, higher than Malaysia’s 34, Thailand’s 41.5, Japan’s 33.9, and India’s 39,” he added.

Quetua also pointed out that according to the Senate Economic Planning Office, the “pupil-input ratios reflect the extent of shortages, especially when disaggregated on regional levels” and while the national average is 38.9 for pupil-classroom ratio, “it could go to as high as 77 students in one classroom” in Metro Manila.

Given this, ACT expressed opposition to easing physical distancing in schools and urged Vice President-elect and incoming Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Sara Duterte to “rethink this plan.”

“It would be counter-productive to the objective of holding face-to-face classes in addressing the problems of the education sector, especially the severe learning gaps,” Quetua said.