No Students Should Be Left Behind

No one ever expected that a global pandemic named Covid-19 could somehow
stop the operations of the whole world. From the daily routine of work of every individual
outside their homes to being stuck working at home; from the physical classes of
students in their school to online classes; from a bare-faced individual to a covered one
with masks and face shields; the Covid-19 has changed the world.

The said pandemic affects far more than just the health of every human being,
but the whole aspect of every nation in the world is bound to hit rock bottom. Different
horrific stories of people with their experiences with the presence of the virus; people
having to run from the city to the next province; people having to sell whatever they
have just to have money for their enrollment and to have equipment for their online
classes. People are struggling. The whole world is suffering.

One of the major aspects that is affected by the Covid-19 is the Education. At
present, the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education pushed
through with this academic year despite the presence of the pandemic due to the fact
that students will turned out to be lazy than before if they will just be bums the whole
quarantine. Their purpose on carrying on with this school year is understandable but the
problem is they didn’t really consider every situation that students are faced with. There
are some students whose parents lost their jobs, that’s why they don’t have money to
enroll or worse, they have enrolled but they don’t have any materials to cope up with the
new normal of online classes; others are selling whatever they can think of even if it
means of having to sacrifice their bodies just to have money to support their education.
The status of a person isn’t the same as the status of every other persons. We are
different from one another.

The continuation of this academic year isn’t a success just as how Sec. Leonor
Briones described the opening of classes. There are over 25% enrollment drops this
year because of having no money. Most of the students are struggling to keep up with
the online classes because they don’t have the same gadgets and equipment as other
rich students have. This implies that online classes are just for those rich who can afford
to buy what they need. Another is, there are over 5 students who took their own lives
because of their struggles with the online classes. With these facts being mentioned,
this is not the quality education that every Filipino students deserved to have.

Filipino students should have an equal opportunity and equal access with their
learning experience, wherein no one has the advantage just because they are richer.
The continuation of the academic year could’ve been imposed better wherein they could
have overlooked every nook and crannies so that no students should be left behind.

Quality Education isn’t just about the continuation of an academic year; Quality
Education should highlight that all Filipino students should have an equal opportunity to
learn and no students should be left behind.