Parliamentary Debate

SCHOOLS SHOULD NOT REOPEN

Speech:
The Philippines continues to be one of the most severely affected countries
by Covid-19 in Asia. While, we are each doing our part of preventing the
spread by staying at home, and while frontline healthcare workers risk their
lives to care for the sick, researchers are racing to find the one thing that
will protect all of us in the long run, a vaccine.
In our country, population adherence to vaccines is critical to overcome the
pandemic and to finally be able to move to the new normal of living.
Otherwise, Philippines, in all its aspects including, schooling would never
recover thus, the reopening of schools is not the time just yet. Not all
Filipinos being fully unvaccinated is the greatest challenge and, might I say,
problem that we all still face in more than 1 year of COVID.
The reopening of schools in the country and Much hope for life after the
COVID-19 pandemic, lies not only in the potential success of vaccines but,
the people’s willingness to be inoculated.

This July 2021, According from inquirer. net, Senator Villar’s family has
made raffle of a house and lot, motorcycles, and other packages to
residents of Las Pinas who are vaccinated.
Fannie Pestaño was interviewed and had said that after many months of
ignoring her brother’s advice to get vaccinated, she hurried to a school
campus to line up for her first dose. So, what changed her mind?
She had always declined her brother saying she thinks the fainting, having
heart attacks or even dying after getting a jab might happen because of
what she had heard from neighbors and news in Social Medias. However,
after hearing that a house and lot was at stake, she reassured herself by
saying “Whatever happens, happens. It’s all up to God”. She immediately
changed her mind to be vaccinated.
This is the status quo. People’s attitude to evaluate things around them. A
lot of Filipinos have reservations about getting vaccinated due to the belief
of vaccine’s ineffectiveness, fear of side effects and also, belief that there is
no such thing as Covid which, are all a result of lack of proper knowledge
and information about the benefits of vaccination. Vaccines does only
reduces the risk of contracting the virus, it protects us from various
diseases and it lowers the chance of mortality.

Knowing that, our goal is to prompt people to have their full vaccination no
matter the brand, as a protection and an efficient solution to the threat
outside.
But what of those who declines?
Those people who are adamant on refusing to take vaccines must be
detained at home. Last July 2021, Pres. Rodrigo Duterte has said that local
officials should detain people who refuse Covid-19 vaccinations inside their
homes. He argued that the coronavirus emergency trumped laws
guaranteeing freedom of movement, calling his order the law of necessity.
Therefore, we propose that people must remain in their homes until they
are fully vaccinated, just as the president stated.

And as we all are secured at our home, the current learning system
that is online class and modular must remain as it is.

OTHER INFOS
We all recognize that mental health is dominant for students to live a stable and healthy
lifestyle, particularly in this time of the pandemic and we are in online learning. Issues
on the mental health will not totally recover if schools will reopen because it's not the
primary cause of why the mental health of students are not that good. Others may
blame it to the loadwork given to the students, but it also depends on the determination
and willingness of a student. There are some students who even rent, bought, or
borrowed a device for them to have an online class.
There we can see that even if there's no face-to-face, the students still try their best to
attend online class, it's because of their determination. There are some other factors
why the mental health of a student is bad. So reopening of schools is not the best
solution for it. We strongly believe that practicing time management would be very
helpful for students to be less bothered and not get easily anxious when it comes to
learning since it will help to increase our productivity and it can prevent stress that may
become the root problem of health conditions, we won't be needing to procrastinate.
There are a lot of ways to get through situations that are thrown at us. We usually find
help from people that are close to us.

Deputy:
I strongly disagree with what the former speaker have said about the Re-Opening of
Schools here in the Philippines, because knowing that there is a virus awaiting us
outside our home is very risking, especially for those little children and to those people
who are experiencing a Health condition or Diseases. A lot of people are telling that it is
better to continue the classes via face-to-face because it is better for the mental state of
the students, but don’t you also think that the health of the students may be at risk
because of the nowhere to be find virus, if they allow the face-to-face classes. A lot of
people are pointing out that many students gets vaccinated and it made them think that
it is safe to go roam around and go to public places, which is not right, especially to
those students who are living with elders. Even if you are vaccinated it does not mean
that you are safe from the virus, that you cannot be infected with it, what if the students
are the one who transfer the virus to the people that living with them because of the
sudden Re-Opening of Schools here in the Philippines. In addition to that, Some of the
students who have an allergy or a severe health condition are not allowed to get their
vaccine because their body might not be able to endure it, and because of that the
Government should know why will the Schools should not Re-Open.