We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thought control
No dark sarcasm in the classroom
Teachers leave them kids alone
Hey, teachers, leave them kids alone
All in all it’s just another brick in the wall
All in all you’re just another brick in the wall…
Songwriter-Roger Water Performed by: Pink Floyd
YES, IT’S a Pink Floyd song that became a hit and created quite a stir in the late ‘70s. But we’re not really going to talk about it at length. I’m just using it as some sort of parallel to the topic that we are actually going to discuss, call it a foreplay.
But just to give those lost in translation a bit of a background, “Another Brick in the Wall” is a three-part composition on Pink Floyd’s 1979 rock opera The Wall, written by bassist Roger Waters.
Waters wrote “Part 2” as a protest against rigid schooling, particularly boarding schools.
The lyrics attracted controversy. The Inner London Education Authority described the song as “scandalous” and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher “hated it”. There was a political knee-jerk reaction to a song that had nothing to do with the education system. It was [Waters’] reflections on his life and how his schooling was part of that.
The single, as well as the album The Wall, were banned in South Africa in 1980 after it was adopted by supporters of a nationwide school boycott protesting racial inequities in education under apartheid.
And we segue to the topic at hand:
The Department of Education (DepEd) has announced that school-year 2020-2021 will officially open on Aug. 24 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, although there was an appeal from the Federation of Association of Private Schools Administrators or FAPSA to open in June despite the pandemic.
That appeal from FAPSA got a lot of negative flack from concerned netizens as the reason was purely economic.
In a purely legal point of view they can very well do that as the law says unless amended schools have the window to open from June till the end of August.
The Education department said FAPSA member schools can open in June provided there is no physical contact and classes are purely online, so that’s that.
The question now lingering in everyone’s mind, particularly the parents, is this: Will it be safe to open schools by August 24 as there is no concrete indication that the virus COVID-19 will be gone by then?
Excerpts from the May 21, 2020 issue of Panay News:
SCHOOLS SAFE FROM COVID?
Class opening shouldn’t be rushed – Iloilo dads
Opening schools when there is no indication yet that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has effectively been combated could put the health and safety of students in peril, warned Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. and Iloilo City’s Mayor Jerry Treñas.
It is their shared personal view that a one-year delay in the students’ schooling is the more prudent course of action.
The Department of Education (DepEd) recently decided to open school year 2020–2021 on Aug. 24, 2020. Education secretary Leonor Briones also called on public school teachers and employees to report back to work on June 1, 2020 to prepare for the new school year.
According to Defensor, deciding on the resumption of classes should weigh heavily in favor of students’ safety, more so because the COVID-19 health crisis remains fluid.
In fact, according to the governor, nobody could say for certain that by August, the COVID-19 pandemic would have ceased.
He would rather forego school year 2020-2021, according to Defensor, so that everybody could focus on overcoming SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 and which still does not have a vaccine.
The governor, however, acknowledged that August is still three months away and he is hopeful there would be no additional COVID-19 cases in the country and in Iloilo in particular.
For his part, Treñas said he won’t actively encourage students to go to school at this time.
“We know the virus is still there, and the possibility of its transmission remains great if there is no physical distancing,” he said.
According to the city mayor, he would leave it to the parents to decide on their children’s schooling.
“If they will not let their children go to school, we will not insist the contrary,” said Treñas.
He added: “What is one year of school closure anyway? We’re talking about human lives here.”
And moi totally agrees with both Governor Toto and Mayor Geronimo. The schools are the perfect environment for the virus COVID-19 to infect schoolchildren and spread itself, creating the next big wave of coronavirus infestations.
Those belonging to the under-21 years age group are among the high-risk to COVID-19 and students belong to this age group, unless their school offers a complete online program like Assumption Iloilo, it would be prudent to make them wait a year to resume school.
It is always best to err on the side of caution. (brotherlouie16@gmail.com/PN)
