POINT OF ORDER

Banning the Banned

Amongall Philippine issues that blasted in the nation’s land these past few days is the ‘no homework policy’ being pressed by different solons around the country.

Dated August 28, 2019, Sen. Grace Poe filed a Senate bill banning teachers’ capacity to give homework or assignments from Kinder to Grade 12 of both public and private schools. Under the proposed measure, teachers may only assign homeworks to students provided that it would be minimal and lit won’t be needing four hours and beyond to be accomplished.

Truth to behold! School stuff must be done in school for never did a student brought a household chore and complete it in school.

According to the study of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Program for International Student Assessment, the additional time spent for homework has a negligible impact on students’ performance. This is after around four hours of homework in a week.

Staying in the right angle, I strongly believe that homeworks should be fully shut to the life of students for it won’t do any good but burden.

Learning does not end after moving out from the four corners of the classroom and bringing homeworks even at home. Homeworks take a less parcel on a student’s life that even without this, they’d survive.

As a student and based on experience, students have learned to trade their health just to acquire high grades due to the countless and tons of homeworks sent from school. The prominence of “Health is wealth” seemed to vanish away because of the teachers pressure, “Time management!”

This sick educational system of the Philippines should be halted! We should not let the time to come where students value grades a lot more over their health and families. And one big step to this is the full shutdown of homeworks.

It is not only the teachers who face tons of paperworks in school. It is not only the teachers who comprise a lot of responsibilities at home. Students too! Homework is like a shirt of burden, needed to be taken off. Banning homework is not just a desire, it is a must!

School stuff must be done in school for never did a student brought a household chore and complete it in school.

nThe Nautilus @thenautiluspub

We dessiminate what is true and factual.

2869 Following 3969 Followers

Letters Editors To The

Justine James Rapas @justjamesrapz

Grade 12 - Hornbill

I am a transferee student and I am now Grade 12. There was an instance that Sta. Cruz National High School junior high campus conducted a particular celebration and I together with my classmates wanted to go there. However, the school guard didn’t allow us to enter the campus gate for we are already senior high students. Why is that? Aren’t we considered students of SCNHS just because we are Senior High already?

nThe Nautilus @thenautiluspub

Thank you for tweeting your concerns here. You are considered as a student of Sta. Cruz National High School, however the programs have specific audience depending on the theme. That is why, school guards are strict on monitoring the entrance of students because that is their job. I hope I answered your inquiry.

Princess Anne Joy Paquit @ayenpaquit

Theshaking alone of the magnitude 6.3 earthquake that rocked Southern Mindanao was enough to cause a panic, but the playful broadcasting of a fake tsunami alert led to traffic congestion and a public panic that would leave anyone traumatized.

The unexpected earthquake that happened in North Cotabato on October 16 at 7:37 in the evening was the strongest one to have ever affected Southern Mindanao. Minutes after the seismic activity, approximately 90% of the citizens of the Municipality of Sta. Cruz and all its neighbors went uphill to escape the false tsunami alert that dispersed throughout the municipality and social media. But it was nothing compared to the scare the citizens of Daliao, Toril District experienced.

Lt. Col Jed Clamor, the Toril Police Station commander, said that Evelyn (real name withheld), the mother of “Dianne”, 17-yearold, were endorsed to him after Dianne’s Facebook post caused hundreds of families to evacuate. The evacuation led to a three-hour traffic jam. Evelyn denied and said that the tsunami information did not originate from them and was passed along from someone else, when she told Dianne about it, her daughter, in turn, posted it on her Facebook page to warn other people. Nonetheless, Rodrigo Bustillo of the City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (CDRRMO) said they should still face the consequences. My question is, would the panic have happened if only government agencies released advisories before anyone could spread fake news?

“There was no tsunami warning released after the earthquake. It is the task of government agencies like ours to release advisories,” Bustillo said. However, we must also think of the citizens’ side.

Yes, it is the government’s job but would anyone be able to wait an hour just for an advisory that may never come? Even the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) takes about an hour to send an alert and during that magnitude 6.3 earthquake I have received none. Not even the morning after. Yet they were able to do so for the Davao Oriental earthquake that occurred early in the morning so may I conclude that they were also shocked, along with the citizens, when that 6.3 hit? Did they also go uphill and forgot to notify the people?

Despite the false tsunami information, Bustillo said that the “People are now alert and know where to go in case of tsunami incident.” And that is true because now, people are more eager to research about what to do during emergencies and calamities. Not every panic is useless after all but it would have been better if only advisories were disseminated faster.

Filipino as we are, many jokes were made about the fake tsunami alert. The first one that caught my eye was a Facebook post that said; “Nagkagubot sa Daliao kay nay nisiyagit og ‘tsunami, tsunami.’ Sa dihang ang inahan diay sa bata nangita sa iyang anak nga si Chona Mae.” This to me is very uplifting because Social Media can turn from a fake news platform, to a fast information platform, then to a good vibes platform in minutes. You just have to know which is which.

For every Chona Mae, there should be two types of people: an informed citizen who only believes trusted sources so as not to risk panicking for nothing; and a government that can race against thoughtless fake news sources.

Would the panic have happened if only government agencies released advisories before anyone could spread fake news?

Good day!

As I’ve observed from the Senior High Students, they are always wearing civilian attires during Wednesdays. As a junior high student, I think it is very unfair for us who don’t have washday when we are also students of Sta. Cruz National High School. Please do enlighten me.

1

Good day to you too.

Grade 7 - Strawberry n

1

Here's the thing. It is because the Assistant School Principal, Ma’am Linda Mahomoc permits senior high school students to wear civilian attires, especially in P.E.. But still, they are obliged to wear uniforms when there are no P.E. classes.

Grade 8 - Diamond

I am a grade 8 student and I have observed that the books we use cannot cater the whole class and majority of the books have damages. Why? What happened to the books?

1

The Nautilus @thenautiluspub

1

Our school is facing a big problem with regards to our learning materials, and also we have an article about that, saying that the loss and damage books have increased by 107%. As students, it is our responsibility to take care of our books so as to avoid aforementioned problems.

Grade 12 - Eagle

I am a twelfth-grader where I am prone to a lot of activities in school. There are times, I lay down in my bed and unknowing, I fell asleep because I am tired of doing such activities. Dancing here. Role-playing there. Acads on this side. And reviews and researches on the other side. It seems that I have no more time to get enough rest. Is these activities still healthy for me? If not, what should I do?

1

The Nautilus @thenautiluspub

1

Thank you for sending your thoughts here. As a student, I also experienced that. Truth to hold, we have many subjects in Senior High School that's why we lots of things to do. It's just a matter of effecient time management. Once the tasks were given, finish it early. Do not wait for the time that you will be procrastinated on the series of activities to be done. I hope I helped you.