Compassion and commitment

The Department of Education formally opened the school year 2020-2021 yesterday after the opening was postponed twice since its regular June schedule. Despite the difficulties encountered in the preparation, and anticipation of more challenges ahead, 22 million public elementary and high school students yesterday began their classes under the so-called new normal—a blend of synchronous and asynchronous modes of remote learning.

In Metro Manila, the DepEd has recorded an increase in the number of students enrolled in public schools as enrolment in private schools has dropped significantly. Private schools are taking a beating from the pandemic with 865 out of 14,435 private schools in the country ceasing operations this school year.

Unlike their private school counterparts, public schools are at least assured of public funding, a large part of which may come from borrowed funds.  Philippine government debt has ballooned to P9.6 trillion in August and is projected to hit P10.2 trillion by yearend and P13.7 trillion in 2022.

Debt is future time spent in advance today in order to increase our chances of bouncing back from the crisis. In debt-to-GDP ratio terms, that means that if we make wise use of these borrowed funds today, we could very well pay them back in the future when the economy is expected to bounce back to its pre-Covid growth trajectory. Otherwise, if the economy continues to falter in a regime of fiscal mismanagement and bureaucratic excesses, our debts will haunt us in 2022.

But I digress. No doubt public education is vital in our efforts to pull through from this crisis. I am one of those who support the resumption of classes this year despite the enormous  challenges students, teachers, and administrators face in a blended remote learning environment. I heard the parents too are overburdened.

I cannot speak on the situation of elementary and high schools. But I can share some insights for the situation at the tertiary level. It has been over a month since the opening of classes at the private tertiary level. The biggest challenge we are facing so far is on internet connectivity.

In my class at a state university, for example, not all students are as privileged as the others who own up-to-date gadgets and enjoy seamless internet connection. This is why I chose Google Classroom, which the school has subscribed to among other learning tools, as my class’ virtual learning platform. Google has the simplest interface that doesn’t take up much bandwidth to access and use.

I have also become more considerate to my students, particularly when it comes to requirements and deadlines. When they have internet connectivity problems, no questions asked, I readily move their deadlines. I told them early on that I will have to rely on their sense of responsibility for their own learning.

True, being a teacher at this very challenging time requires a love for the craft. Reaching out to students, and ensuring that they are not being short-changed by the system and are not short-changing themselves, require some extra time and commitment.

I told my students early on that it would be a sad plight when inept, evil, and corrupt people lurk around us taking advantage of the situation, yet we do less than what is necessary to equip ourselves with the strength and ability to fight back and make this world a better place through education. Let us try to be the “rose that grew from concrete when no one else even cared." Compassion and commitment go together.