DepEd okays remote learning

All schools have the option to hold asynchronous classes this week as several transport groups are set to hold a week-long strike starting today to oppose the phaseout of traditional jeepneys, Vice President Sara Duterte, concurrently education chief, sai

Saying that learning recovery is the priority of the Department of Education, Duterte called the transport strike “pointless” and delivered scathing remarks to a teachers’ group that threw its support behind the strike.

“Learning recovery is foremost on the agenda of the Department of

Education today. It does not include the pointless weeklong transport strike supported by (the Alliance of Concerned Teachers),” Duterte said in a message to reporters.

Duterte also mislabelled the transport strike as “communistinspired” despite the communicated agenda of around 40,000 traditional jeepney operators and drivers of UV Express vehicles to convince the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to suspend the phaseout of their vehicles.

“I maintain that during this communist-inspired weeklong strike, both in-person and alternative delivery modes of learning shall be implemented, whichever is convenient to the learners,” Duterte said.

DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa earlier announced that classes will not be suspended amid the strike.

This prompted the Alliance of Concerned Teachers to score the department for being “insensitive” to the plight of students and teachers dependent on public transportation to commute to campus.

“DepEd’s inflexible stance does not make sense amid suspension of physical classes by many higher education institutions. If college students are expected to have a hard time coming to school on the days of the transport strike, what more for our much younger pupils?” the group said in a statement.

Duterte also accused the teachers’group, which banners several campaigns on making education accessible to marginalized students, of wanting “children to remain uneducated and poor” due to its support for the transportation strike.

In its response to Duterte’s remarks, ACT said that students can learn from paying attention to the socio-economic message behind the transportation strike, primarily led by jeepney drivers who will shoulder the hefty cost of the jeepney modernization program.

“We live in a society that is now embroiled in a deep economic crisis and our teachers and students are not exempted from rising prices of goods, inadequacy of income, or difficulties in public transportation,” the teacher’s group said.

“Many of our students and teachers have family members who are PUV drivers who are about to lose their livelihood.” —