Salceda: No to online classes amidst COVID-19 crisis

LIGAO CITY — Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda told the Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) that there should be no virtual classes during coronavirus crisis.

“Online classes [are] not beneficial for students now the country is in [a] pandemic situation,” Salceda said Saturday.

“There are two million enrolled in private schools, with almost three months of no work no income, 90 percent of parents and working students can’t pay to finish second semester,” Salceda added.

He said the schools are compelling students to do online classes in order to justify the collection.

“Doing education online is socially unjust because of [the] digital divide – no laptops or desktops, no load. It has little impact on learning transmission given slow and unstable internet or results in residual knowledge given the crisis,” the lawmaker said.

Salceda said by initiating it, it aggravates the crisis by adding expenses to the quarantined families.

It also added more pressure and anxiety that compromise mental health and it also violates Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) rules on social distancing among the vulnerable populations as it encourages social contact outside of the home, including the purchase of load which is neither food or medicine.

He said that when Congress reopens on Monday, he will file the Economic Stimulus Act that will provide Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) to all non-TES college students provided schools do not impose online classes.

He said it is best to end the semester by passing all college students.

“Just realign P16 billion from Tertiary Education Subsidy 2020 in General Appropriations Act,” he said.