Here’s a glimpse of the lives of some students during the enhanced community quarantine.
1) A sixth grader has been with his grandmother since birth. Now, he has an online homework. His Lola knows nothing about the latest tech, has no phone, and does not have enough money to buy one for her grandchild. All computer shops are closed. Lola had to ask her neighbors for help.
2) A fourth year college student bites her fingernails nervously, as she worries about how she can survive the quarantine without her part-time job. She was locked up in the city, and officials cannot let students like her get out easily. Now, two notifications have popped up—one a notice from her landlady reminding her of the rent, and the other an online quiz to be taken until midnight. Days ago, her parents told her they were going to sell a carabao to pay a fraction of her tuition, rent, and other expenses. The understanding child that she is, she convinced them not to do so. She promised to find other online jobs.
Apparently, online classes still continue in some universities. There is no point in blaming students because they do not have a laptop or other gadgets to cope with the piling requirements. Just recently, the United Nations found out that 826 million students do not have computers and 706 million have no internet connection, at a time when online learning is the most feasible solution for the academe.
To have flunking literacy rates and to impose online learning modalities at the same time is a folly. It is truly disheartening to see elementary pupils struggle to find their way into online classes, when issues about insufficient books and classrooms still fester in the background.
All these issues about the state of the country’s education sector have simply piled up and worsened. When everything blows up, the teachers will be affected, but the students will suffer the most.
Jules Philip Tillay
tillayjulesphilip@gmail.com