If businesses can operate at limited capacities, limited face-to-face classes should also be allowed, Senator Win Gatchalian said on Wednesday.
He made the call as he pitched the idea of holding limited face-to-face classes through “purok workshops” in the areas with little or no transmission of COVID-19.
“Holding these ‘purok workshops’ can help address persisting distance-learning woes,” Gatchalian said.
He made the statement even as a party-list lawmaker pushed for an urgent hearing in the House of the Representatives on the bills to increasing the public school teachers’ allowance for teaching supplies.
Assistant Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro made the call following the Senate’s approval on final reading Monday of a bill that would institutionalize the staggered increase of theteaching supplies allowance of public school teachers to up to P10,000 in the next four years.
“We urge the members of the Lower House to immediately hear in the committee of appropriations now that the Senate passed the bill for the increase in the teaching supplies’ allowance of public school teachers to P10,000 in the next five years,” Castro said.
“Similar measures filed in the Lower House—including our HB 222 filed on the first day of the 18th Congress—are still pending. Adopting the Senate-approved version will speed up the process.
“A higher chalk allowance will greatly unburden teachers amid too much demands and challenges in delivering education in this time of pandemic.”
Deputy Speaker and 1-Pacman Rep. Michael Romero supported the Senate’s staggered approach to reaching the goal of a P10,000 teaching supplies allowance for public school teachers.
Gatchalian proposed that “roving teachers”, including the learning-support aides hired by the Department of Education, could be deployed per barangay zone or purok to teach a small group of up to 10 children.
Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate committee on basic education, arts and Culture, said this proposal was inspired by the learning pods that became popular in the United States.
He said those learning pods were first formed by parents who were worried that children may not have the attention for online learning. Some pods hired teachers to teach children’s curriculum and some share responsibilities with parents.
By mounting purok workshops in low-risk areas, especially those with zero cases of COVID-19, Gatchalian says, the learners will not only receive proper guidance from teachers. They can also meet their need for social interaction, which they have not been able to do since the imposition of lockdown measures in March. As of Nov. 7, there were less than 500 municipalities that had zero cases of COVID-19 based on the map of the University of the Philippines’ tracker.
He says connectivity is the top challenge that hound both learners and teachers in this time of distance learning, noting that internet connectivity tends to be unreliable even in areas that are connected to the internet.
Gatchalian also shared the example of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao. In a Senate panel hearing, Bangsamoro Minister of Basic, Higher and Technical Education Mohagher Iqbal said only 20 percent of BARMM could connect to the internet. As of Nov. 10, there were only 501 active COVID-19 cases throughout the region.