SThe Alliance of Concerned Teachers-Negros based in Bacolod City reiterated their call for a safer, accessible, and quality education as schools continue to face the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Led by president Gualberto Dajao, the organization made the call in observance of the 3rd International Day of Education on Sunday, Jan. 24 with the theme: “Recover and Revitalize Education for the COVID-19 Generation”.
“This poses great challenges to all countries on how to undertake the teaching and learning process amid the pandemic and to place education and lifelong learning at the center of the recovery and the transformation towards more inclusive, safe and sustainable societies,” ACT-Negros said in a statement.
They added that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought great havoc to humanity and almost all human activities are affected by the disaster, including education.
The group claimed that in the Philippines, the government has “resorted to passive measures in dealing with this recent development and its impacts on education”.
“Mere restrictions will not suffice in addressing a health crisis. The government must employ concrete actions,” they said.
They suggested to combat the virus by bolstering public health, curb its spread by installing preventive health measures, and enable the delivery of accessible quality education through ample resource provision.
“Otherwise, we’ll again be forced to choose between health and life, and our rights to services like education. But to that we say no more, these are our inviolable rights and the state’s constitutional mandate to uphold,” the group said.
The ACT-Negros added they “believe that the education system’s recovery from the pandemic should be geared towards the possible resumption of face-to-face classes – it being viewed by most as still the ‘most ideal’ delivery mode in formal education”.
They further pushed that the government should “take more serious actions towards this path, especially as the government’s ‘ill-equipped’ remote learning program failed to deliver on its promise to ensure learning continuity”.
“We further believe that the risk of the new strains of COVID-19 should not derail initial steps towards closing the gaps in education delivery amid the pandemic,” ACT-Negros said. “Instead, it should push the government to heed calls to guarantee health and safety in schools, maintain non-transmission in remote areas, provide ample tech infrastructure for remote learning, among other.” – NND
