‘Harder times’: Teachers warn of worsening education crisis ahead

MB – Published March 15, 2021, 4:48 PM

The ongoing education crisis will become much worse with the planned reduction of printed modules and shift to digital learning being pushed by the Department of Education (DepEd), a federation of teachers warned.

Citing the recent results of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) survey showing that 89 percent of families with enrolled children aged five to 20 years old saw blended learning as more difficult than the traditional face-to-face modality, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Monday, March 15, warned that learning will be “harder” for millions of Filipino learners.

ACT said that there will “harder times are ahead” for both students and teachers once the plan of DepEd to reduce the production of printed modules and increase the use online learning due to budget constraints will be fully realized.

“How many more surveys does the Duterte government need for it to listen to our education stakeholders and urgently address the worsening education crisis?,” asked ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio. “Instead of allocating additional budget to alleviate the suffering of learners, teachers and parents, the government’s thrust now is to further scrimp on education and exacerbate our hardships,” he added.

ACT slammed DepEd’s aide memoir dated March 10 issued by the Office of Undersecretary Alain Pascua stating DepEd’s strategy to increase the utilization of its online platform “DepEd Commons” – from the current 9.5 million to 15 million users – as part of the agency’s thrust to move away from expensive paper-based modules.

“Without printed learning materials, no government-provided gadgets and internet allowance, and next to none internet signal in many areas in the country, how else can the poor children learn amid the pandemic?” Basilio said.

The group noted that DepEd’s move “could be borne out of the sorely inadequate” P15 billion government allocation for module printing this year while DepEd requested for P50 billion for the item.

“It is plainly tactless and heartless to force poor families to shift to online learning while the government has no allocation either for gadget and internet support,” Basilio said. “This would only make education less accessible to the poor and impose heavier financial burdens to families,” he added.

Given this, ACT is pushing for the allocation of supplementary P120 billion budget to education for this year to improve access to and quality of education amid the pandemic.

The amount, Basilio said, would cover the needed learning resources for both modular and online learning, preparation for the safe and limited reopening of schools in areas with zero COVID infection, and protection and benefits for education frontliners.

ACT noted that education crisis should be remedied immediately. “If the government truly cares for our learners and educators, they need to listen to their woes and and implement a concrete and grounded plan to salvage the declining state of our education,” Basilio ended.

SOURCE: https://mb.com.ph/2021/03/15/harder-times-teachers-warn-of-worsening-education-crisis-ahead/