Gov’t urged to use ABS-CBN frequencies

House Deputy Speaker and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte has filed a resolution proposing the government’s use of ABS-CBN’s former television and radio frequencies.

These, he said, can be tapped to deliver education amid the restrictions imposed against mass gathering due to COVID-19 pandemic.

In House Resolution 1044, Villafuerte said that “exhausting all possible delivery modes such as the use of untapped television and radio frequencies as those vacated by ABS-CBN is important in keeping students engaged” amid the learning crisis brought by the pandemic.

Citing a World Bank report, Villafuerte said the pandemic is causing more than 1.6 billion children and youth to be out of school in 161 countries. The number constitutes around 80 percent of the world’s students.

Villafuerte said that exhausting all possible delivery modes such as the use of untapped television and radio frequencies as those vacated by ABS-CBN is important in keeping students engaged amid the learning crisis brought by the pandemic.

“Inequality and inaccessibility of opportunities such as those pertaining to Internet connectivity and possession of a laptop pose a variety of challenges for teachers and learners,” he noted.

“The reduction in losses in learning require creativity in remote learning strategies, such as tapping radio and TV as alternative media for teaching purposes,” he added.

Villafuerte said the former frequencies used by ABS-CBN will be especially useful in areas not yet reached by digital infrastructure, such as some of the communities in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The Department of Education is currently working to transition the modality of teaching from face to face to blended learning, which is a combination of online distance learning and in-person delivery of learning materials to the homes of the learners.

Villafuerte said aside from delivery of education, the unused frequencies may also be used for information on COVID-19 prevention and control.

More than 20 million students — around 72.7 percent of the expected enrollees this year — have listed for the reopening of classes.

Last school year’s enrollment was at 27.7 million. WITH NEIL ALCOBER