Lest we play a never-ending Blame Game

The current educational setup has prompted us to bend over backwards and expand our skills, flexibility, and empathy. With our persistent efforts to cope with the systematic global adjustments due to the pandemic, we were spared from having to put our lives on hold for two solid years devoid of educational pressures. Although perhaps, seeing how we are holding up right now, we may have overestimated our capability to put up with the pressures of online classes and flexible learning.

One would say that the transition to digital platforms was never easy and demands more time and practice to successfully operate, but a competent person will know how to make education work even with the overwhelming presence of the internet. Instead of setting schedules where the use of video presentations and synchronous discussions can alternately gear the students with adequate knowledge, some educators opt to leave soft copies of learning materials instead. Then, as though these .pdf files suffice to educate the learners, they proceed to bombard the class with quizzes. In turn, students find it hard to rely on their own knowledge with this sort of education and, thus, resort to searching for answers and copying-and-pasting ideas from the internet. Here’s something that we have learned by now: Incompetence is an incurable disease unless the

person willfully decides to diagnose himself out of it, and honesty and discipline are two morals that are difficult to teach through virtual screens. The shift in the system, coupled with the existing poor education ranking of the country as per 2021 reports from the World Bank, urges deliberate reforms from the Philippine educational agencies and calls for optimum commitment from students and teachers alike. As young people who need to build a better future for the nation, it is high time that students demand better standards and performance from themselves when it comes to education. In this way, they can also ask for accountability from higher educational personas without coming off as hypocrites.

It still feels surreal that now, we are in the second academic year under the Flexible Learning Program. Since we are already here, and though we may be tired of being labeled as resilient and strong Filipinos, it is best that we embody and manifest these traits. To advocate for education that prevails means being able to prevail over our incompetent selves first. In the grand scheme of things, the world is still crawling on its back towards being well again, but wouldn’t it give you peace to think that in the middle of this entire crisis, you’ve done your part to make things better and urged others to do so as well?

by Eriel Indira R. Albarece