A TEACHERS’ group said that “grim” prospects await millions of students and education workers on the opening of another school year as 47,000 public schools remain closed and distance learning woes unresolved.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers attribute the “sorry state of education” to the alleged incompetent leadership of President Rodrigo Duterte and Education Secretary Leonor Briones.

“Teachers, students, and parents alike are reasonably anxious to start the new school year. They are set to be subjected to the same torment they went through in the last year as President Duterte continues to neglect his duty to the education sector while Secretary Briones desperately tries to deodorize the reeking state of education, instead of working with stakeholders in demanding better state support. Kami-kami na lang na naman ito. Hindi na pwede, hindi na kayang karguhin ng mga guro at estudyante namin ang kapalpakan ng gobyerno,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, lamented.

ACT noted that the most obvious indicator of the government’s failure to support and improve education delivery amid the pandemic is the persisting imposition of the no face-to-face classes policy in basic education, making the Philippines one of the last two countries in the world to have an indefinite school closure.

The group further hit the government for the lack of resolution to the multitude of problems with its remote learning program.

“Every other country — except for one — has successfully re-opened their schools despite the pandemic, but the Duterte admin stubbornly insists on its thoughtless ‘one-size fits all’ policy. It’s employing the same unscientific approach it has used against Covid19 in its response to the needs of education — which not even Secretary Briones can deny. Neither can DepEd refute the glaring costs of such failure to education access and quality and to the welfare of teachers and students. So how can the Secretary, in good conscience, stomach the praises she publicly gave out to President Duterte yesterday?” Basilio questioned.

He referred to Briones’ earlier claims that the agency has been able to “improve the over-all condition of the education system” through the “increased allocation and strong commitment” of the Duterte administration.

“Has she forgotten how Duterte’s SSL gave the second lowest salary adjustment to teachers, or she just chooses to ignore that because she has consistently opposed our fight for decent pay? What about the widely noted learning loss among students, or the amount of school closures during this regime — from hundreds of Lumad schools to private schools that the government failed to support at the height of the pandemic? Everyone but Secretary Briones acknowledges the grave crisis education is under. In her bid to stay in the good graces of the President, she’s become complicit to the administration’s criminal neglect of education,” Basilio said.