Opening of SY 2021-2022 a celebration of ‘sweet smell of success’ — Briones
For Education Secretary Leonor Briones, the opening of School Year (SY) 2021-2022 is a celebration of “victory and success” despite the challenges brought by the pandemic.
“Last year, I declared victory with the opening of classes on October 5, 2020. Today, Sept. 13, 2021, DepEd celebrates with great joy its success in opening classes for the second year in the time of COVID,” said Briones during the virtual National School Opening Day Program on Monday, Sept. 13.
“We opened classes last year.
We successfully ended them. Now we are opening another school year. Isn’t that success worthy of celebration?” Briones added. “Today, we are opening the School Year 2021-2022 as we celebrate last year’s victory,” she added.
DepEd formally opened the SY 2021-2022 for public
schools under a distance or blended learning scheme since face-to-face classes remain prohibited by the government.
“The challenges we are facing now are even tougher than those we battled last year,” Briones said. Nonetheless, she noted that over 24 million learners “have returned to schools and we expect even more to enlist for late enrollment.”
Briones noted that when she declared victory over COVID-19 last year, “some people got angry” noting how can one declare victory in the time of COVID-19. “For them, it was the worst time to feel victorious,” she said.
Despite this, Briones said DepEd crafted the Basic Education - Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP) and reduced the Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELCs) from over 15,000 to 5,000.
“Nonetheless, we opened the school year in the midst of debates over printed versus digital learning material,” Briones said. “The call to continue education triumphed over calls for lockdowns and closures,” she added.
Briones also noted the amount of effort and hard work the entire DepEd “exerted to keep schools cannot be quantified” and because of this, DepEd “ended the School Year 2020-2021 in victory.” Citing DepEd’s data, Briones said tentative graduation figures indicated that 98.13 percent or 2,055,499 of 2,115,040 Grade 6 learners made it.
Grade 10 learners, Briones said, also “did very well” with 96.9 percent or 1,881,817 out of 1,940,578 completed their studies. Grade 11 learners also made it at 97.2 percent or 1,489,164 of l,531,718.
“Ahh, the sweet smell of success!” she exclaimed.
Love and education
For this year’s school opening, Briones said DepEd has been preparing for the start of classes for months already.
“There is much success to celebrate and build on,” Briones said.
What DepEd did, Briones said, was considered “impossible” in five months. “We translated printed material into TV, radio, cell phone, tablet; and yes, utilized walkie-talkies for remote schools,” she explained.
DepEd also prepared learning facilities and distributed gadgets with the help of local government units (LGUs), national agencies like the Bureau of Customs of the Department of Finance, multilateral and bilateral partners, as well as business and civil society organizations.
Despite the challenges, Briones said even in the time of the Delta variant, “there is love and there is education” - thus, the DepEd will continue to celebrate victory and success this school opening.
Protests
Disgruntled education stakeholders welcomed the first day of classes with various protests as public schools in basic education remained in a “lockdown” more than a year since the pandemic started.
Members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Monday denounced the Duterte administration’s “continuing neglect of the
education sector” and called for the safe re-opening of schools and for bigger state support for distance learning needs.
“Today, we will be forced into another school year of the underfunded and ill-equipped distance learning, with still no plans from the government on how it can safely reopen our school nor on how it will address the grave issues hounding DepEd’s learning continuity plan,” ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio said.
Basilio said ACT refuses to allow Duterte’s “indifference to our plight” and DepEd’s “utter disregard for the welfare” of its constituents continue to reign.
“As state abandonment peaks, we have no one else to turn to but each other,” Basilio said. “The future of our youth and their right to accessible quality education now lies on the collective resolve of teachers, parents, and students to say ‘no more’ and demand better,” he added.
The day began with teachers’ sunrise protest at Mendiola to press the Duterte government to ensure the benefits and protection of public school teachers who carry the brunt of the shift to remote learning in the last school year.
ACT leaders lamented how teachers remain to be “overworked, underpaid, and under-supported” in the last five years under the current administration.
Throughout the day, teachers held a laptop protest on social media to register their pressing demands for overtime pay and service credits, P1,500 monthly internet allowance, P3,000 inflation adjustment allowance, hazard pay, and their overdue salary upgrading to salary grade 15, among others.
“Despite years of neglect and violation of labor rights from this government, we never wavered in our commitment to deliver education to millions of youth,” said ACT NCR Union President Vladimer Quetua.
Quetua said teachers have “braved all sorts of risk and danger just to give our students a chance at education” some of which came at heavy costs. “Many of our colleagues fell ill and died due to COVID-19, suffered physically and mentally due to the burdensome demands of distance learning, exhausted personal resources to meet the requisites of various modalities—all as we look after the future of our country, our youth,” he lamented.
“Who looks after us? We only demand what is due us, what we have earned, and what we deserve,” he asked.
Meanwhile, parents and students also held protests in various forms, such as a noise barrage in an urban-poor community, a protest program outside a school in Quezon City while students were dressed in their uniforms, gathering signatures for a petition to safely re-open schools, setting up a make-shift classroom at Mendiola— all signaling their dismay at the current state of education.
Education stakeholders are also urging the government to release a “clear roadmap” on how it plans to address teaching and learning needs amid the pandemic – noting that the country is “lagging behind” in terms of coming up with an effective program for education amid the raging health crisis.
To amplify its demand for safe, accessible, and quality education and ensure the advancement of education workers’ rights and welfare, ACT announced that it will be staging more action protests throughout teachers’ month and beyond. “It’s time for our calls to be heard,” Basilio ended.