IMPLEMENT NATIONWIDE ACADEMIC EASE NOW!

As another school year of distance learning persists, the same negligent and detached leadership from the Department of Education (DepEd) and Commission on Higher Education (CHED) remain, rendering the entire educational sector helpless in the face of piling national crises. Due to these, the stakeholders bore the brunt of the national government’s incapacity to resolve the continuing onslaught of the pandemic, further widening the gap entailed by this inaccessible mode of education.

Despite already going through an entire school year in this mode of education, the national government continues to fail in addressing the pressing concerns being decried by the educational sector: inaccessibility, detriment in the stakeholders’ mental health, massive decline in the capacity to learn, and heavy workload that harmfully weighs on both the students and teachers alike. 

The Rise for Education Alliance - High School (R4E-HS) and National Union of Students of the Philippines - High School (NUSP-HS) remain firm in their stance that the topmost priority in systematically and sustainably addressing these concerns is through the promulgation of the safe resumption of physical classes, as the conditions in making it possible were already presented by the Safe Schools Reopening Bill filed by the Kabataan Partylist (KPL). As both formations support this bill, the R4E-HS and NUSP-HS also forward these urgent demands that the DepEd and CHED must adopt in creating the humane conditions for education as the steps for safe resumption of classes are being undertaken:

1. IMPLEMENT AN ACADEMIC BREAK
   The student sectors demand a genuine academic break that prioritizes students' overall health and wellbeing over the alarming volume of academic workload during the new distance learning mode. This time period may also be used by the government (DepEd and CHED) to assess the situation and implement pro-people plans and adjustments in response to the learning environment we are in.;
2. EXTEND THE DEADLINES FOR REQUIREMENTS
   Stringent deadlines must be scrapped, both for the students and the teachers, because these impose an expectation that everyone must be able to work in the same pace, which is prejudicial to the different conditions of many where a lot are intensely suffering with the repercussions of the crisis;
3. RELAX ACADEMIC REQUIREMENTS
   In looking after the general welfare of the populace and prioritizing their health, which includes their mental disposition, the educational system must appropriately adjust its curriculum in allowing for the reduction of workload that is only within the reasonable amount in accordance with consultation with students and teachers. Thus, easing academic requirements is only within reason, given that the reported workload has greatly affected students negatively, leading to many instances of health deterioration;
4. UPHOLD A NO-FAIL POLICY
   Forwarding a no-fail policy is an act of compassion for those who are struggling in the current mode of learning, as administrators should be concerned about the lack of accessibility and equity if they want to maintain a fair and just system of learning.
5. DISTRIBUTE 10K STUDENT AID 
   In the pursuit to bridge the economic barriers that widen the crisis of inaccessibility of distance learning, the House Bill 9494 filed in Congress must be fastracked and passed. One of its key provisions include the distribution of PHP 10,000 financial aid to all students, where PHP 2,000 will be given to students for 5 consecutive months to aid them in their online learning expenses.

#NoStudentLeftBehind

#AcademicBreakNow

#AcademicEaseNow

#WalangIwanan

#LigtasNaBalikEskwela

#DepEdAnoNa