Reconsider class suspensions | Borneo Online Bulletin

Minimizing disruption in education

MANILA (ANN/PDI) – The announcement of class suspensions is often greeted with relief by students, parents and teachers. However, even if canceling a single course does not have a significant impact on the overall course plan, the cumulative effect of multiple cancellations throughout the semester can exacerbate our educational challenges.

As a former medical student at the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila and now a faculty member at UP Diliman, I have experienced both sides of class cancellations. While a canceled class may offer temporary relief, frequent disruptions can disrupt learning and contribute to the educational crisis we face.

Having been a member of the UP Diliman faculty for several years now, I can say that an instructor can also feel greatly relieved by the cancellation of a course. One lecture doesn’t detract from the overall lesson plan: one can always catch up in the next session and perhaps just email reading material or a pre-recorded lecture. In some contexts, it is also possible to simply organize courses online.

But given that several classes are canceled each semester, their accumulation can exacerbate our educational crisis. There are many ways to measure this impact, but young people themselves know it best, and as journalist Bonz Magsambol wrote in a recent article, based on interviews with students: “Due to frequent suspensions of in-person classes, a student feels like the pandemic has started again even though they have learned less, or nothing at all. I don’t have empirical evidence on how many school days are actually canceled, but my impression is that they are numerous and have increased over the years, especially after the pandemic lowered the course cancellation threshold. In addition to typhoons, floods and transport strikes, there is severe heat which justifies the suspension of classes.

As the heat wave gives way to the rainy season and discussions about moving the academic calendar gain momentum, I want to raise some questions regarding the politics, logic and logistics of course suspensions:

The first is whether some course cancellations are actually justified and how these decisions are made in the first place. Bad weather (I like how this adjective is reserved for this purpose) is, of course, a valid reason, and we must take into account that weather forecasting is not a perfect science: even in the United States , snowstorm forecasts can be very bad. out of context. But there are times when politics, not weather, drives certain decisions (it is local executives, after all, who decide); Certainly, better data and governance can help localize course cancellations where they are actually needed. I should add that the prolonged course cancellations due to COVID-19 were unjustified; we don’t need to have endured one of the longest educational lockdowns in the world.

The second is the time of cancellations. Sometimes weather-related cancellations happen later in the day, when students have already left – or even when students have already arrived (which makes going home, not going to school, the issue). Of course, we can’t hold decision-makers entirely responsible given the unpredictable nature of weather, but they must be determined to avoid the inconveniences that cancellations are intended to prevent in the first place.

The third concerns alternatives. In some contexts, online courses work very well; I’ve had success teaching graduate courses over Zoom (I hope my Anthro 267 students, with whom I just finished a semester of online discussions, will agree). But as the Magsambol article points out, online learning has been substandard at best, even after the pandemic years. If, as is most likely, online learning becomes a permanent part of education, then we need to work on the infrastructure to make it happen, and we need to make it accessible to everyone: not just those who have the means. Internet, good laptops, etc. Or, class cancellations will exacerbate not only our educational crisis, but also our educational – and, ultimately, economic and societal – inequities.

Finally, there is the broader question of how we can adapt our education system – our classrooms, our teaching styles and, of course, the academic calendar – to provide a more conducive environment for learning in a changing climate. change. I am sure that many in our education sector are already campaigning for climate-proof and better ventilated classrooms, but we need political commitment for these measures, especially since, beyond the education system, they will require the improvement of our public transport and our digital infrastructure. infrastructure, among other broader reforms. Tellingly, a 2016 study by Gregorio Y Ardales Jr and colleagues at UP Rural High School found that flooding kept Laguna students from attending school not only because they could not travel , but also because their own homes were flooded.

It is certain that even with our best efforts, there will be situations that merit declarations of walang pasok. But given the importance of each day at school, we should cancel classes only when necessary and, more importantly, we should seek sustainable solutions to minimize the need to cancel classes in the first place. – GIDEON LASCO