Senator Sherwin Gatchalian backed President Duterte’s option thumbing down education officials’ recommendation to allow face-to-face (F to F) classes in limited situations, sharing the Chief Executive’s concern both students and teachers would still be at risk of being hit by the deadly Covid-19 virus.
At the same time, the senator saw “no need” to craft a remedial legislation addressing major changes in the education sector given the impact of the virus to both students and teachers, apart from disrupting the school calendar.
“No need for a new law,” Gatchalian said in an interview with DWIZ, even as he stressed the need to assess the lessons learned from the virus and its impact on education.
He added in Filipino: “There is no need legislate a new law. But what we have to ponder on the lessons we learned amid the devastation of the virus and its impact on education. We have witnessed that this contagion is potent enough to put to stop the education of our youth.”
Sen. Gatchalian acknowledged that one of the lessons learned involved the use of Internet for education. “One of the more notable lessons we learned is the critical role of the Internet in education. There’s big difference in private and public situations, he said.
For instance, the senator noted “in private schools, we saw students continuing their education because they have gadgets with access to the Internet. But in public schools, it is not like that.”
Gatchalian recalled to DWIZ that last January, it appeared there was an improvement in the Covid situation. In March, however, the situation has shifted with a surge in Covid cases and the subsequent tightening of pandemic curbs.
Gatchalian said this was why he was in agreement with President Duterte “because of this Delta variant”t that penetrated the country.
“It appears the Delta variant has broken through our borders and it’s for our best interest to keep this deadlier, more transmissible virus mutation under control, specially now that we have seen a marked improvement in the situation in Metro Manila, even as cases have been reported to be rising in the Visayas and Mindanao areas,” the senator said.