Youth group calls for 'academic freeze' until mass testing for Covid-19 is done

Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) a youth group calls the attention of Department of Education (DepEd) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to introduce an “academic freeze” until mass testing for the coronavirus is implemented.

Photo credit: englishforums.com

Academic freeze will give the country time to have effective and efficient mass testing or mass vaccination, not only in the hands of one, but for a cooperative and responsive process to push through this pandemic.

The youth group also recommended that DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones and CHED chairman Prospero de Vera III to drop planned online classes as it is an "anti-poor" program and just continue the compensation of academic and non-academic employees.

“The actions taken by the government in assuring the continuation of learning despite the global COVID-19 pandemic have ignored the pleas of the majority of the country’s students whose lives have been upturned not only by the direct onset of the pandemic but its economic and financial repercussions as well,” the group added.

The group also said that the government have sided with different private educational institutions that are just capitalist ideals even this time of health crises. They raised the concerns of million students who wants to learn but can't enroll because they are uncertain of how learning will proceed.

DepED in an earlier report extended the deadline for enrollment in public schools to July 15. While for colleges, CHED said those that apply flexible learning can start in August. Flexible learning are universities that uses digital and non-digital technology. While other higher educational institutions that use residential learning or face-to-face learning can open by September.

“What use is a continuous yet low-quality and inaccessible form of education when our own future is at stake? If the cases continue to rise as it has been in the past weeks since the start of the General Community Quarantine, then what more should we expect when we return to physical classes?” raised by the group youth.

This is the time for Briones and De Vera to prove their commitment on providing quality and accessible education for all students, the group added.