MANILA (UCAN): Student organisations at the Jesuit-run Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines demanded an open discussion with its administrators regarding students’ struggles connected with online learning due to the Covid-19 coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic.
One Big Strike, a grouping of several student organisations, urged university president, Father Roberto Yap, and vice president, Maria Luz Vilches, to attend a public forum with concerned students.
The group said in an open letter that it wanted them and other administrators to engage in urgent, open and public discussions about addressing students’ challenges before the upcoming semester starts.
Previous “town hall meetings” only assessed the challenges of online learning during the last semester.
“Everyone grappled with online classes … regarding academic tasks a lack of interaction between students from the same classes, and mental health issues due to stressful circumstances,” the group said.
The group also said students were encountering difficulties in connecting to the Internet due to power outages and poor Wi-Fi connections.
They also cited the “erosion of boundaries” between work and life, while social issues in the Philippines had worsened, such as the red-tagging of schools for being “breeding grounds for terrorism.”
One Big Strike said, “Some students are struggling to juggle their studies and working in order to sustain themselves and their families during the pandemic.” It claimed students whose homes or accommodation were destroyed by recent typhoons had to move from place to place to gain better Internet access.
The group also questioned whether their concerns were unique to their academic community or to the entire nation.
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“We will continue to ask relevant questions since the challenges that we face aren’t challenges that are unique to Ateneo. Rather, these are challenges that exist beyond the university. What are we missing? What do we lack? How much more are we willing to sacrifice?” they asked.
Students from other universities have similar concerns.
“We would like to thank the students of Ateneo de Manila University for having the courage to speak up about the concerns of students in this pandemic. There are issues that school administrators need to consider. Giving out a lot more work is one of them,” University of the Philippines student, Greg Alajanes, remarked.
He said lecturers conducting online classes should be realistic about their expectations of students.
“I think students at Ateneo are also trying to reach out to professors to give reasonable homework and academic requirements. I know the classes are online but it does not mean that they should burden students further,” Alajanes added.
Meanwhile on January 30, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) refuted recent claims made by Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade, Jr, commander of an anti-communist rebel task force, that at least 38 universities are recruiting grounds for the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
It told the government, “Instead of red-tagging (labelling as communist) educational institutions, which endangers the security and welfare of teachers and students, we urge the government to tackle the real roots of the insurgency problem like poverty and marginalisation,” the statement said.
