MANILA, Philippines — A youth organization has called on President Rodrigo Duterte to issue an executive order that would initiate an “academic freeze,” or postpone the opening of classes, until January 2021 to give the national government ample time to prepare and shift to blended learning amid the new coronavirus disease pandemic.
Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan on Monday stressed that moving the reopening of classes in public schools to Oct. 5 was insufficient to “close the glaring gaps of the digital divide.”
An academic freeze would give way to key reforms and increase the capacities for distance learning for students and teachers, the group said.
But in an online press conference on Monday, the Department of Education insisted that they were ready for the reopening of classes on Oct. 5.
—Meg Adonis