Can’t believe it, but here we are, down to the last couple of months this year. We know what you’re thinking, and we get it. You can’t wait to get into the holiday spirit after this whole mess of a year, but there’s something more pressing we gotta talk about.
If we’re down to our last two months of the year, it also means finals season for many people. If you’re flashing back to days (or even weeks) of stress, piles of schoolwork and deadline after deadline, imagine the pressure on everyone in the academe right now, with this pandemic that doesn’t seem to end.
The hashtag #FEUHSKalma trended yesterday after several students from Far Eastern University High School (FEUHS) voiced their concerns on social media over the workload and deadlines immediately succeeding the Undas break.
As of this writing, classes in FEUHS are suspended today because of the incoming typhoon but the hashtag is still alive with student concerns.
And it’s not just FEUHS. Students from other schools have also called on their respective administrators to adjust guidelines for online classes, or at least consider student grievances.
#DoBetterUP trended when students called on administrators of the University of the Philippines to consider the students’ mental health and concerns over remote learning, especially at the height and in the aftermath of Typhoon Rolly.
Even general hashtags on online classes like #NoStudentLeftBehind and #WalangIwanan still pop up among trending topics occasionally, which shows up the state of the country’s education system, and questions the “victory” that the Department of Education secretary declared roughly a month ago.
If schools truly want to make sure that their students are “resilient, healthy and happy,” they should at least listen to and address their concerns. Using the resilience card forever isn’t gonna cut it, not when the system has already failed them.
Read more:
DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones calls academic freeze advocates “opponents”
With online classes, teachers and students share the same struggle
In short film “Excuse Us,” we see the ugly reality behind online classes
Art by Jan Cardasto