FreEDom for all: a call for accessible quality education
Fatima A. Mayuyu
Department of Education Secretary Leonor Briones stated, “Sulong EduKalidad is our commitment to help our learners achieve their full potential, for their kite of dreams to fly high through quality basic education for all.” This is during the campaign launching of Sulong EduKalidad on December 3, 2019, and making it as the battle cry for literacy throughout the nation. It was in line as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) result ranked the Philippines on the last place among 79 participating countries in the said test administered to a representative sample of students, ages 15 years old, in the course of reading comprehension, science, and mathematics. The result shocked the nation on how extensive is the literacy poverty that is currently existing. However, the DepEd muzzle its teaching force on joining the campaign to increase the competency of our education by reviewing and updating the curriculum, upgrading the learning environment, upskilling and reskilling of teachers, and engaging every stakeholder towards the common goal.
Sulong EduKalidad is very responsive to the problem, incompetent education system. The campaign’s actions taken were also visible and projecting a very clear and attainable results. Yet, a turn of event made this campaign to face a new challenge. In March 2020, the Coronavirus Disease outbreak became a pandemic affecting the Philippines. As per the pandemic, the government made community quarantine measures and lockdowns to prevent the rapid transmission of the virus. Therefore, every component of the country was affected by it including the education system. The vagueness of whether classes will resume or not after the lockdown is a very clear problem. It is like choosing between health and education. As a response, the DepEd made a statement the classes will resume in August 2020 having no face-to-face setup but rather having the online classes or the blended classes. With this action by the DepEd, many were in aghast on what terror will it bring, not only by health risk but also on the quality of education. The problem now is not about the continuity of the academic calendar, but the problem is the “education for all”. It is not only the DepEd who imparted the value of education and making it free for all but also the constitution clearly states in its 14th article, section 1:
The State shall protect and promote the right of all citizens to quality education at all levels, and shall take appropriate steps to make such education accessible to all.
Is the plan of the DepEd for online classes accessible to all? Does every family afford to buy gadgets for their children and have an internet connection for it? There are 3.8 million students in the country who wants to have their “printed module” while 2 million students can make through online. It only shows that there is a number of students who can’t afford to connect for the online class. However, the DepEd offered the blended learning wherein the education will not be concentrated on online classes but also to the modular classes. The irony is, how will the students be able to answer and to make progress in their modules if the teacher is not hands on to them? The DepEd suggests “family support” for every student’s home-based study. But is this really a solution or another additional burden? According to the PSA survey in 2017, there are 5 out of 10 families in the Philippines who has no family member ages 18 above that finished a college degree course. So we can’t assure that “tatay”, “nanay” or even “ate” and “kuya” can supervise the academic progress of “bunso” because of the reason that they are unfortunate to finish studies. With this case, the solution is on the hands of the teachers who are foster parents and can supervise every student, if and only if everyone can access the online classes. Sad to say, out of 20 million families, only 1.8 million has home internet connection, thus imply that this kind of education setup is not for all. Let the data speak for themselves to reiterate to the Department of Education about their own battle cry, not only the “Sulong EduKalidad” but foremost, the constitutional right of making education free and accessible to all.
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The author is Administrative Assitant III