UNITY

You all must have heard about the phrase United we stand divided we fall, Since we have got
independence we knew that how important unity is, people can easily break you crush you and throw
you if you are alone, but when you stand together then nobody can touch you, We all know that unity
gives us courage power and strength, we all have heard this phrase because its commonly used in
different places, We can see unity even at the workplace, where team members together work in order
to complete the target, even in local trains people create groups so that they can help each other, unity
always supports and help, if any team member works alone there can be chances that person get
defeated, but if person works as a team chances of success increases. Unity gives freedom, unity makes
us win, we all can work, we all have the capability to start business but by working together we can win,
individually we are like one drop but together in unity we are like ocean, in this world you will meet
different people, and every different people will know something that you don’t hence by understanding
each other we people can learn through each other.

We are living in a world that is composed of billions of individuals from different areas and different
views on how the world should be or even life itself. All these differences in their personalities lead to
constant conflicts due to opposing ideologies. That is human race.

Going in that sense, we could very easily find our natural milieu become a violent warzone with no
agreement and nothing tempted to stop it. That logic makes cooperation and understanding become
literally impossible and yet we are getting by. Why is that? The answer is really simple, we learned unity.

It may sound strange from a first perspective but the truth is, we are able to find things we have in
common with others. Therefore we sort of find ourselves in them. We find thus goals in common, a
common identity, and much more. That is the base of cooperation between people.

It is important to work together to achieve goals. As the African proverb says; “If you want to go fast go
alone, but if you want to go far, go together”. That is true especially in the African environment where
things evolve fast. Moreover, African countries and businesses suffer more from the lack of union than
from anything else. There is no stable civilization that has been built with a strong economy if not based
on union.

The issue is that, we Africans tend not to invest in our own economies and countries. Practically
everything is taken away, naming education, health, vacation and even simple things such as shopping.
The matter is that we do not even realize that we are actually taking wealth outside of Africa. Had we
kept that same wealth into the continent, it would have moved much faster and further than this.
Another fact is that, in the infrastructure sector for instance, most of the projects are put up through
FDI. When financing a project, the foreign company naturally benefits from it, but it requires our leaders
and governments to make sure that the locality participates in the projects so the country can benefit
from it as well.

Unity allows us to accomplish things far greater than we could ever do by ourselves. It combines
strength and thoughts to turn it into something amazing. Africa has the resource and the workforce it
needs to progress beyond our expectations, but desperately needs its people to unite and work towards
the same goal.

F2f class resume.

“We could no longer afford to delay the education of young Filipinos,” said Vice President Sara Duterte,
who is also the education secretary, as she toured schools in the town of Dinalupihan, about 40 miles
northwest of Manila.

Even before the pandemic, the Philippines had among the world’s largest education gaps, with more
than 90 percent of students unable to read and comprehend simple texts by age 10, according to the
World Bank.

Schools in the Philippines have long suffered from shortages of classrooms and teachers, whose pay is
low, leaving the vast numbers of poor children who cannot afford private schools and rely on the public
system with inadequate teaching. Now, after losing more than two years of in-person instruction,
schools face the monumental challenge of educating many students who have fallen even further
behind.

Though the Philippines offered online instruction during the pandemic, many students lacked access to
computers or internet connections, and overburdened parents often found it hard to keep tabs on their
children’s remote learning. In some cases, students’ already tenuous connection to school may have
been severed entirely after so long away.

Education amidst pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented many challenges to students, educators, and parents. Children
already coping with mental health conditions have been especially vulnerable to the changes, and now
we are learning about the broad impacts on students as a result of schools being closed, physically
distancing guidelines and isolation, and other unexpected changes to their lives.

There is an old saying that goes, “Education is the only inheritance which nobody can take away from
you.” Our elders have always emphasized the importance of education in one’s life, no matter how dire
one’s circumstances in life are. In our country, people put a premium on it to uplift one’s quality of life.

This old saying was never truer than when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in the country. Students
still continued with their studies despite economic and physical setbacks brought about by the
pandemic.

During this time there was a notable number of private school students transferring to public schools.
According to the data gathered by the Department of Education (DepEd), before the start of the
academic year 2020 to 2021, it was estimated that 250,539 students transferred from private to public
schools. During the school year opening in August 2020, DepEd reported that around 380,000 students
made the choice to transfer from a private to a public school.

When asked about the increase of transferees, DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones said that private schools
have been affected by the downturn of the economy because of the parents who lost their jobs and
therefore cannot fund the studies of their children. This observation was echoed by Coordinating
Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) Managing Director Joseph Noel Estrada who said,
“The primary reason for this is the economic impact [of the pandemic] on families – parents losing jobs,
losing businesses. As we all know, schools are fully tuition-funded, if many students do not enroll, many
schools would definitely shut down. And many cannot enroll because many lost their jobs or closed
down their businesses.”

As a result of this, enrollment in private schools plunged. For school year 2020 to 2021, the COCOPEA
reported that enrollment in private schools declined by 50% (equivalent to 2 million students).
COCOPEA Director Estrada feared that many schools will shut down due to this trend.

Fortunately for private schools, Republic Act No. 11534, otherwise known as the “Corporate Recovery
and Tax Incentives for Enterprise Act” or CREATE Law had been passed into law. The CREATE Law is part
of the tax reform program of the government aimed at lowering corporate income tax rates and to
rationalize the grant of incentives for qualified businesses. One of the amendments introduced by the
CREATE Law was the lowering of income tax rates of proprietary educational institutions and hospitals
which are nonprofit from 10% to 1% for the period from 01 July 2020 until 30 June 2023. However,
should there be more than 50 percent of the gross income of these entities come from ‘unrelated trade,
business, or other activity,’ their total gross income will be subject to 25 percent. The law defines
‘unrelated trade, business or other activity’ as any trade, business or other activity, the conduct of which
is not substantially related to the performance of the primary function of such schools and hospitals.

The CREATE Law was a welcome break for private schools who are trying to keep afloat because of the
substantial loss of income due to the pandemic. After all, it was not only the educational institutions that
were affected by sudden decrease in enrollment, but also the employees who depended on school
enrollment such as the educators, non-teaching personnel, maintenance personnel, canteen
concessionaires, and even the dormitories and establishments operating near the schools.

Unfortunately, the reassurance seemed to be short-lived. The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) issued
Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 5-2021 which aimed to implement the CREATE Law. Section 2 of RR No. 5-
2021 defined “proprietary educational institutions” as “private schools, which are non-profit for
purposes of these Regulations, maintained and administered by private individuals or groups, with an
issued permit to operate from the Department of Education (DepEd) or the Commission on Higher
Education (CHED) or the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), as the case may
be”.

Many people reacted to RR No. 5-2021’s definition of a “private school.” Based on the RR, for a private
school to be entitled to the 10 percent (currently pegged at 1% until 30 June 2023) tax rate, it was
imperative that a private school meets two conditions: proprietary and non-profit. This definition
effectively disqualified the majority of private schools from enjoying the tax benefits under the CREATE
Law as most private schools operate for profit. The private schools that did not qualify under the two
conditions imposed by RR No. 5-2021 were subjected to the regular 25 percent corporate income tax
rate.

In order to deal with their already fragile situation, which was further exacerbated by RR No. 5-2021, it
was reported that the COCOPEA and the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities (PACU)
lobbied extensively with the legislature in order to address the situation. The legislature responded by
passing R.A. No. 11635, otherwise known as the “Act Amending Section 27(B) of the Tax Code.”

Section 1 of R.A. No. 11635 clarified the dilemma brought by R.R. No. 5-2021 by stating clearly the
following: “Hospitals which are nonprofit and propriety educational institutions shall pay a tax of ten
percent (10%) on their taxable income except those covered by Subsection (D) hereof: Provided, that
beginning 1 July 2020 until 30 June 2023, the tax rate herein imposed shall be one percent (1%).”
Following the wording of R.A. No. 11635, the entities entitled to the lower tax rates of 10 percent
(currently 1%) are nonprofit hospitals and proprietary educational institutions. There is no further need
for private schools to be both proprietary and non-profit in order to enjoy the low tax rates. Majority of
private schools are now qualified to enjoy the low tax rates as originally intended under the CREATE
Law.

While it is the job of the tax authorities to be resourceful in finding ways to improve the government’s
finances during this pandemic, it should not jeopardize those who are educating the youth. By helping
the private educational sector survive during this pandemic, the government is also helping our youth
survive by giving them more access to quality education.

Nd emotional learning — like empathy, attention, collaboration and negotiation, critical and creative
thinking, growing awareness of multiple perspectives and developing respect for others who are
different — are difficult to inculcate among students without face-to-face classroom teaching. Second,
having said this, we have to understand that, when, for any reason — be it a pandemic or any other
unforeseeable reason, classroom learning is not possible — online education may be a viable alternative
provided:

i. Adequate public financial resources are allocated for providing access to online educational
facilities, in particular, for the students belonging to the economically weaker sections in
order to overcome the prevalent digital divide.

ii. Necessary arrangements are made for stable broadband facilities throughout the country
for quality online learning along with provision of earlier broadcast technologies like radio
and television for delivering the curriculum.

iii. Educational institutions, not only in metropolises, but also in smaller towns and rural and
remote areas, are equipped with state-of-the-art ICT (Information and Communication
Technologies) facilities for imparting quality online education.

iv. Teachers are sufficiently trained for offering online lessons using different digital platforms.

v. Necessary arrangements are made for offering lessons in digital platforms in the vernacular
languages of India.
 vi. Proper methods for assessing the quality of the learners are developed and familiarised
among both students and teachers.

vii. Adequate arrangements are made for imparting online education to differently-abled
students.

The fulfillment of the above essential conditions would be able to create a sustainable alternative
method of imparting quality education to make India one of the major future education hubs in the
Global South and to turn the country’s demographic dividend into valuable human resources by
imparting advanced skills to compete in the world in the 21st century. The COVID-19 pandemic is a test
for India. But it also gives us an opportunity to turn this crisis into a driving force for achieving India’s
aim to provide quality education to all.