THE MILITANT youth group Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan has dared the Commission on Higher Education to go on record in ensuring quality education in the coming semester amid the move to online learning.

The group aired the challenge after CHED Commissioner Prospero de Vera III expressed confidence in schools’ readiness to shift to online learning.

“With all the difficulties and uncertainties surrounding the coming academic year, we need more than ever for De Vera to reassure students, parents, teachers, and school employees that the coming school year will be worth all the trouble,” John Lazaro, the group’s national spokesperson, said in a statement.

“Otherwise, De Vera’s words will simply prove to be all bark and no bite,” Lazaro added.

The group said the claim of readiness made by the CHED commissioner last month was baseless since they continue to receive multiple reports from students who have encountered difficulties in enrollment procedures, absence of guidelines on how the blended learning will proceed and most prominently, lack of gadgets and a stable internet connection.

“CHED must address the elephant in the room. De Vera keeps on mouthing their ungrounded readiness but they have failed to make the same pompous assertion on the quality of education students will receive under their distance learning schemes,” Lazaro said.

The activists added that if CHED could not guarantee quality education, then it has no right to allow schools to increase tuition and other fees.

The group had previously slammed CHED  over issues such as the continued increase of tuition and other school fees, the continuation of online classes, and the agency’s inaction to compel schools to refund unused fees last semester as well as reduce miscellaneous fees for the coming semester.

It has consistently claimed that CHED and De Vera were enabling the thirst for profits of the capitalist-educators, and were not championing the welfare of students, teachers, or school workers.

However, CHED failed to respond to most of SPARK’s criticisms and criticized the youth group for ‘sensationalizing’ the incident that caused the death of Capiz State University student Kriselyn Villance.

SPARK is the leading youth and students organization calling for an ‘academic freeze’ until January to allow students, teachers, and school workers to look after themselves first during the pandemic.