#LigtasBalikEskwela: Why Academic Freeze is not Ideal in the Philippines amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

In The digital divide in education: Policy lessons from the pandemic, Subedi emphasizes the shift to remote or distance learning in various UK institutions quickly after the lockdown, challenging about 1.6 billion students without adequate access to the necessary resources to adjust to this “new normal” (2020).

This is supported by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in The COVID-19 Crisis: Accentuating the Need to Bridge Digital Divides, stating that the pandemic has forced society to become digitally reliant to continue operations and development (2020).

Due to the current lockdown and quarantine restrictions of the Philippines caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, academic institutions have had to adjust to conducting the school year online. As a result, the digital divide amongst students and teachers is relatively more evident. According to Steele (2019), “the digital divide is the gap that exists between individuals who have access to modern information and communication technology and those who lack access.”

In the context of education, this is the gap between students who have access to such technology for online learning and those without (Subedi, 2020). Although the advancement of technology and the existence of the digital space has allowed academic institutions to proceed with the school year through online learning, not all students benefit from this online set-up due to issues with internet access and connectivity, the inadequacy of some homes to provide a conducive learning environment for students, and the preparedness, or lack thereof, of different schools, colleges, and universities (UNCTAD, 2020).

This digital divide in education is amplified by the socioeconomic status of the students, especially in a third-world and developing country like the Philippines. Steele (2019) points out that one of the prime causes of this digital divide is low income levels, stating that “wealthy families are 10 times more likely to own computers and at home high-speed internet connection than low-income families.”

This is because low income families prioritize necessities such as food, water, and electricity, thus viewing laptops and fast and reliable internet connection as luxuries they can’t afford. The decline of the Philippine economy and the rising unemployment rate does not make this any easier for those in poverty, as they already have difficulty providing the family’s basic needs.

Socioeconomic status also affects the digital literacy of students, which only benefits students who gained early and regular exposure to digital technologies to learn and utilize their digital skills compared to those without exposure or access to technology (Steele, 2019) due to the inability to purchase it.

This digital divide in education not only affects the students, but also poses difficulty for teachers and professors. Due to the socioeconomic status of the country, one can expect that not all teachers have undergone the proper training and own the necessary devices or have a stable connection to smoothly facilitate online learning for their students (Steele, 2019).

Students also have different learning styles, posing another challenge for teachers to actively engage their students in their lessons to ensure that they are absorbing the subject matter and lectures. There are also a number of high school teachers and college professors who are taking up their post-graduate degrees alongside teaching in an online setting, making it difficult for them to separate their work, study, and personal life.

Suffice to say that teachers and professors must also be kept in mind when providing a solution for this national crisis.

However, with the rising crisis of the pandemic without any significant signs that going back to face to face classes will be possible in the near future, the utilization of digital platforms for education is likely to continue (Subedi, 2019). Given this situation, how can the Philippines work with this system despite its ineffectiveness?

Despite the calls for academic freeze by various students, it is simply a band-aid solution that doesn’t hold the government accountable for their insufficient COVID-19 response in the country. Although this seems ideal, academic freeze would also cause the unemployment of teachers, professors, and school and university staff, rendering them without pay and capabilities to provide for themselves or their families.

This would also discourage youth in poverty to continue their education once they stop, as their parents are likely to ask them to look for a job to help provide for the family. Additionally, schools and students in rural areas are in dire need of the proper technological infrastructure due to the small amount of consumers and the difficulty of telecommunication companies to install the necessary equipment for stable signals and connections (Steele, 2019).

Students who call for academic freeze are those with the privilege of being delayed a semester or a year. Of course, not all students have this privilege.

The alternative solution that students are asking for is Ligtas na Balik Eskwela, which calls on the government to aid the health sector in providing better COVID-19 response to “flatten the curve” and lower the number of COVID-19 cases in the country to be able to return to an almost pre-pandemic state of daily operations. This would allow students to optionally attend face-to-face classes for their education.

Educational institutions may also adopt a hybrid model of education, requiring half of a class to attend a face-to-face lecture session, while the other half attends the class through Zoom, Google Meet, or any video conferencing platform of the professor’s choice to be able to practice social distancing in the classroom.

Ligtas na Balik Eskwela takes into account the positive wellbeing of the students, the job security of school, college, and university teachers, professors, and staff, as well as the alleviation of the country’s health crisis since the local transmission of the pandemic.

Due to the prediction that the pandemic will demand for society to utilize modern technology as a necessity, it presents an opportunity to make education more accessible (Subedi, 2020) to those with sufficient means. Alongside this opportunity, “policymakers have to make sure the benefits distribute equitably,” (Subedi, 2020).

If the government will not provide adequate technical support for students who need it to be able to continue their education to decrease the gap between the socioeconomic and educational digital divide, then a completely online set-up will never be a viable option for the Philippines.