ONE OF the decisions of president Duterte was not to have face-to-face classes in our schools during the period of the pandemic.
From next week, however, there will be a “pilot” study for 100 public schools where there will be in-person classes.
I am uneasy.
What are the measures which will determine whether or not the ‘pilot’ study is successful? How will these measures be assessed?
I am pleased that the Department of Education (DepEd) “has put protocols and measures in place to assure the safety of children who will participate in the return of in-person classes”.
“This includes risk assessments (how defined?), facility inspections (ditto) and the required consent of local government units and parents. What happens if a parent withholds consent?”
DepEd said it achieved a “very high vaccination rate for teachers nationwide, especially for schools that would participate in the pilot study”. How high? How does DepEd know? What did it do to facilitate this achievement? What about the students?
What are the criteria for success or failure of the pilot study? Do these criteria depend on whether or not there are new COVID-19 cases? Is it fair for schools to subject children to this risk?
The risk factors which caused president Duterte not to allow face-to-face classes are still present. Given that this decision had merit, there is no good reason to reverse it now.
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An organization called Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), a British-based company which assesses the ranking of universities in Asia, has recently produced its annual results.
A total of 867 Asian institutions were assessed. The University of the Philippines (UP) was the highest ranked Philippine university and was in 77th place. UP was followed by Ateneo de Manila University (124th), De La Salle (160th), University of Santo Tomas (177th). Further down, ranked 501st to 550th, was Ateneo de Davao University, Mapua University, and Silliman University.
The 60st to 650th were Central Luzon State University and Xavier University.
Finally, ranked below 651st were Adamson University, Cebu Technological University, Central Mindanao University, Central Philippine University, and Lyceum of the Philippines University.
The highest-ranked university in Asia was the National University of Singapore. This was followed, in order, by Peking University, Beijing, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, University of Hong Kong, and Tsinghua University, Beijing.
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I salute those students who gain admission to our best universities.
Nevertheless, we are ranked very low compared to other Asian institutions.
Can we rank higher?
I believe so.
The first step is to raise the standard in our Senior High School (Grades 11 and 12). DepEd missed a big opportunity by having two extra years in High School on the implementation of RA 10533 (the K-12 Act), but not making much progress in Senior High School.
We can do better./PN
