THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers hit President Duterte over the “unreasonable” and “harmful” lockdown of 47,000 public schools, while neighboring countries have partially reopened their schools amid the pandemic.

It said that the closure of schools proves Duterte’s “failed leadership” amid the pandemic.

“We’re less than two weeks away before the new school year starts, but, from what we can tell, the President has not moved an inch on his unscientific and clearly harmful insistence on absolute lockdown on schools. The clamor for limited face-to-face classes hasn’t let up either, especially as it is grounded on dire access and quality issues with distance learning which the government has no plans to resolve, as far as we can tell. Talagang si Duterte ang pinakamalaking hadlang para maagapan ang learning loss, at para makamit ng kabataan ang karapatan sa dekalidad na edukasyon,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

ACT expressed concern over the learning crisis observed in the last school year. Teachers reported that classroom participation dwindled mostly because of limited access to distance learning needs like gadgets and internet connection.

The group said that these problems are more rampant in rural areas.

“Neither DepEd nor the President has sufficiently addressed these pressing issues despite repeatedly being raised by education stakeholders, yet the government insists on another school year of purely remote learning. Ganito ka-walang pakialam ang administrasyong Duterte sa sektor ng edukasyon. Matindi na ang krisis sa edukasyon noon pa man, pero labis pa itong pinalala nang palpak na tugon sa pandemya at walang-kapantay na kapabayaan ng gobyerno,” Basilio said.

ACT urged legislators and DepEd to join them in pushing for a gradual return to physical classes.

“Let’s do everything in our power to enable limited face-to-face classes. We owe it to millions of youth whose inviolable right to accessible quality education had been sacrificed for too long,” Basilio said.