Gap drawback

This has recently become a ringing bell to the parents of Sirawai because of their children who are affected by the sudden loss of education.

In the Philippines, the number of out-of-school youth mounted at the onset of the pandemic from 16.9 percent in January 2020 to 25.2 percent this year based on a study released by the US Agency for International Development. This is alarming in the core of education, which is why it is really a must to go back to the four corners of our classrooms for a proper education.

Here in Sirawai National High School, a whopping 1,780 total number of students are back to in-person classes compared to previous years, which is 3% less than this school year, thus, it is evident that the on-campus classes have been imperatively welcomed for a strong bounce back in learning.

Moreover, we students had experienced great inconvenience during modular learning. We often complained of the almost consecutive learning materials given by our teachers. We even experienced uneven access to technology because of the internet issue we endured in our municipality two years ago. We may not say it directly and honestly to our teachers, but our source for some of our answers in modules is Google.

Having said this, it is really a good call now to return to in-person classes so that we students will not be even more tolerated, and worse, become dominantly reliant on the internet just to cope with the lacking modules we failed to answer. If this tendency is continued, we might end up getting promoted to another grade level, but nothing has been learned at all.

Further, parents had also faced extreme challenges that modular modality brought to them. These are those who are illiterate in education. These parents expressed their sentiments because they cannot afford to tutor their kids. On the other hand, some parents tend to spoil their children by doing the modules all by themselves. Where is now the essence of modeling by parents who are supposed to be inculcating the value of patience and honesty in their children?

These were just some of the tough times we encountered during the crises in education. Now that we are back to normal classes, we must not waste our time trying to redeem ourselves while learning because we cannot presume that the resumption of on-campus classes immediately eliminates our toil to learning.

It takes two to dance a tango, as the saying goes. We must not be a burden to our teachers. We should avoid absenteeism and stop escaping. Let us help our teachers’ teaching become productive in all aspects. With this, as disenfranchised learners, we will be able to fill in the education gap we need as hopes of tomorrow.