#AcademicFreezeNow #NoStudentLeftBehind 

Midst the pandemic and various typhoons that hit the Philippines, deadlines are the least priority students and youth should be thinking about.

Not only that, continuous wave of number of cases of Corona Virus is not dropping and the curve have not flattened yet, and students are still expected and put pressured on about the deadlines and grades that they are supposed to maintain.

The academic freeze is vital in this time wherein there is a pandemic, mainly because of the following reasons:

1. Not every students in the Philippines have stable internet connections at home. Also consider that the Philippines are one of the countries that have the slowest internet connection worldwide.

2. Not all of the students are privileged to own the materials that they would be needing on the online based education that DepEd wants to implement this school year. E.G, laptop, computer, mobile phones, etc.

3. Even though that there would be printed materials that will be delivered to the homes of the students through courier service, the parents would be obliged to use their money for the courier fees instead of using that amount for their necessities in the middle of this pandemic.

4. Even though that students before the pandemic are attending their classes in schools, facing their teachers face to face in a daily basis, not all of them can comprehend their lessons and are still having a hard time to focus on their lessons. What more that they would be studying through screens only? How can we be sure that they would be able to learn?

5. Considering the past months that Philippines was shaken by 3 consecutive typhoons, DepEd does not seem to care about the students' sufferings and continuously claim Filipino Resiliency which lacks them to act on the recent situations and problems our country is facing. "Pagtuyo o pagbilad sa araw" is not enough statement but only express lack of concern in the students' current situation.

It may not be the best solution, but an academic freeze can be adopted until the digital divide is fully resolved or results of mass testing and curve-flattening are already evaluated empirically. This will require a flexible academic term, calendar, and curricula to lessen the school days required, lower the number of course requirements, and reduce tuition and other fees usually projected for the use of school facilities.