Schools ready to implement 'flexible learning' in August - CHED

Universities and colleges are ready in August for class opening even if the country is amid the coronavirus pandemic, said Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairman Prospero de Vera III.

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"We are ready to open [classes] this August. No ifs, no buts. Learning must continue. We learn as one, we are ready," De Vera said during a virtual briefing.

It is not new for universities to implement flexible learning this year said De Vera. He added that top universities have been doing it even before the coronavirus pandemic. Some universities have shifted to flexible learning during the quarantine and are moving ahead for the opening of classes.

Flexible learning for higher education institutions involves a combination of digital and non-digital technology, which CHED says doesn't necessarily require connectivity to the internet. 

According to De Vera, universities and colleges have the freedom to choose what mode would be effective for their students. Some would be using pure online or pure modular, while others are combination of the two, De Vera said.

But numerous posts on Facebook and Twitter have gone viral showing Filipino students climbing trees, or even mountains, just to get a good internet signal for their classes. Such posts have outraged both netizens and student groups who have called out educational institutions for prioritizing academic output over student welfare.

When President Rodrigo Duterte placed the entire Luzon and other parts of the Philippines on lockdown on mid-March several schools shifted to online classes, following CHED’s advisory that encouraged schools to use available distance learning, e-learning, and other alternative modes of delivery in preference to residential learning or what is convenient to their students. 

Students of the top schools in the country had urged CHED to suspend online classes nationwide. While they understand the need for learning to continue, the different circumstances of students across universities are not ideal and conducive for such.

Some students students groups have also called for an academic freeze as the country battles the pandemic. They mentioned that the coronavirus lockdown affected household finances, and many students don't even have access to a computer or the internet.