No vaccine, no schooling

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

There are moves to keep the schools closed until the vaccine against the pandemic is found. Since the chance of a vaccine being discovered appears too far out into the future, there is no guarantee that schools can open next year.

That is of course a pessimistic view but considering that hundreds of laboratories are working day and night to find the vaccine have not found one that can pass tests on humans, we are looking at the dark tunnel.

As I wrote earlier, it is fine with the public schools because they are government employees and whether the schools open or not, they get paid, in effect they are getting a long, paid holiday.

In fact, teachers in the public schools are enjoying their holiday that the Alliance of Concerned Teachers composed of militant public-school teachers have placed severe conditions before classes are opened. If the government agrees with them, there is no way that students will be back to school even when the vaccine is found. But that is the Department of Education’s problem.

Bacolod is proud that President Duterte agrees with the city officials’ position “to avoid classes which practice face-to-face scheme of instruction until the national emergency and threats to life and health caused by Covid-19 shall have considerably subsided and controlled.” What the parameter of “threat to life” being “controlled”, is unclear.

However, the city agrees with the President that since “there is yet no known cure or antidote against it” the government must undertake strict preventive measures to arrest further infection. And that includes the closure of the schools until an antidote is found.

There is strong merit on the argument that “the life and health of the children and teachers are unarguably far more important and sacred than academic education” but has there been a popular demand by “numerous parents” for the “deferment of school opening… lest the whole nation plunges headlong into a more catastrophic second wave assault of Covid-19 victimizing no less than our endeared children and teachers”?

On the other hand, the Federation of Associations of Private School Administrators president Eleazardo Kasilag claimed that its member schools believed that should the start of classes this upcoming school year be postponed to a later date, even the FAPSA preparation for online distance education may be affected.

Kasilag noted that private schools continue to strive for survival in these challenging times. “We are here for the passion to teach because we believe extended class suspension triggers lifelong harm,” he added. “Public school teachers should understand that our pupils might get used to vacation and lose interest in anything academic.”

Echoing DepEd’s position that “education must continue even in emergencies,” Kasilag also slammed those who are calling for postponing the school opening. Even during calamities such as – eruption of volcanoes and strong typhoons – and even during war time, he noted that children continued their education.

“Now that the COVID-19 forces us to stay inside the comfort of our houses and the students will have home-based learning, you’re more afraid?” he asked.

Kasilag added that during emergencies, the “moral duty of teaching has to be conducted.” DepEd, he added, is also after the safety and welfare of everyone, thus, he urged teachers “not be afraid” as they are tasked to prepare the country’s future generation.

Indeed, unless there are strong, compelling reasons for closing the schools for a long period of time, authorities should consider not just the physical health but also the mental and psychological damage to children kept out of school and study.

We may add the burden on the parents who are working and their predicament of leaving their kids at home alone. Not all homes have helpers or other members of the family in a two-generation household.

Authorities should also consider the plight of thousands of teachers and staffs in private schools that would be unemployed for as long as the doors of the schools are shut.

Will government, for instance the city of Bacolod, financially assist them? If not, then the city has condemned them to penury. The Social Security System cannot grant them unemployment pay nor can the Department of Labor and Employment provide for them.

If government wanted to lock down the schools, it must also ensure that thousands of teachers and school staffs are not reduced to mendicancy or leave the profession.