Parents Teachers Alliance: Defer reopening of classes

Dear President Duterte:

We, the Parents Teachers Alliance, a nationwide organization, welcome and support the recent enactment into law of Republic Act No. 11480, amending Section 3 of RA 7797, otherwise known as “An Act to Lengthen the School Calendar from 200 Days to not more than 220 Class Days.”

We fervently appeal to Your Excellency to use the power and authority granted by RA 11480 to defer the scheduled opening of classes in August to a much later date to provide the Department of Education ample time to prepare and address the following concerns:

Uniform teaching modules are yet to be finalized, as the teachers tasked to prepare them were not professionally trained to do so, the same being the function of the DepEd Curriculum Bureau, aside from the fact that printing cost will be shouldered by classroom teachers.

Only a minuscule percentage of our 800,000 teachers have ready and actual access to internet facilities, which, on the average, would cost P1,000 per month for every teacher.

Almost all 47,000 public schools in the country have zero internet connectivity, while a great majority of our 27 million K-to-12 students do not enjoy such facility, let alone have access to tablets, laptops, and personal computers.

The government television station’s frequency effectiveness is very limited. Most, if not all, radio stations all over the country, on the other hand, cannot possibly accommodate the requisite airing time for the 13 grade levels with at least six subjects per grade or 78 class hours for a radio station that ordinarily airs 18 hours daily. What block-time, then, if we may ask, is the DepEd alluding to?

The 4Ps Program was conceived to prompt parents to send their children to school instead of helping them out with work. Blended learning, premised on parents’ willingness and competence to teach their children schoolwork, will negate this objective, not to mention its prohibitive cost which could easily be beyond the financial capacity of most local government units.

We most respectfully submit, Mr. President, that these are but some of the most pressing, critical, and fundamental issues that must first be addressed with haste and certainty before the opening of classes. As such, we earnestly appeal to Your Excellency’s wisdom that the opening of classes in August be deferred to a later date if only to accord the DepEd such time to adequately, seriously, and honestly prepare for the same.

For our children’s sake.

EMILIO B. ABELITA,

chair, Parents Teachers Alliance, Mayamot, Antipolo City