Students and various organizations led by National Union of Student of the Philippines (NUSP) Metro Manila prompted an online campaign to call for #MassPromotionNow and #EndSemesterNow on May 2.
Many private universities in Metro Manila chose to continue the semester by holding online classes or pursuing the submission of requirements despite the students calling for an end to the semester as long ago as the first week of the month-long total lockdown in Luzon that started on March 17.
The sudden shift to online learning caught many students unprepared and ill-suited to adapt, requiring their own strong internet connections and computers at home, at a time many of their parents and families also lost their livelihood, jobs or income or are taking pay cuts because of the work stoppage imposed by the lockdown.
The subject of mass promotion followed the call to end the semester and two extensions of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) that would now end on May 15 and leave only two weeks if no longer extended for schools who shifted to the August-July calendar. Most universities had only around six weeks of the classes before the lockdown, less than half of the 16 or more weeks every regular semester.
Even if ECQ is lifted, under the prescribed “new normal”, CHED has pushed for “flexible learning” that could mean blended online or offline or flexible submission or completion of requirements. This has prompted the call for mass promotion for humanitarian reasons, aside from the online classes not being practicable
“The unyielding insistence to go on with the semester is perplexing to say the least. Too many students have aired how they are unable to go on, and how right now it is unthinkable for them to reboot the semester or to have two semesters’ requirements on top of each other. If the schools would not budge with ending the semester, what more with mass promotion? These are just and humane demands from the students that have fallen on deaf ears,” said Angelo Cocharo, Technological University of the Philippines University Student Government Senator and NUSP Metro Manila Campaign Head and Propaganda Officer.
But in the monitoring and reaching out to students they have been conducting, he said “the resoluteness to continue the semester becomes clear as the announcements for refunds and rebates come in.”
“Quite nefarious if you think about it, that the stubbornness to not end the semester and implement mass promotion would also mean the schools would not be required or looked upon to give as much refund as possible and as much as it is fair and they would also not waive the remaining balances of the students,” Cocharo explained.
He mentioned the case of Adamson University students who called out the university after they were being blocked from the school’s social media platform for complaining about the refund or rebate that is “too low”, “unfair” and the decision to continue the semester “lacking in compassion.” Adamson University offered only a 15% tuition refund or rebate; the latter to be applied if the student is enrolling in the midyear or next semester, which is also the time the students must pay their balances during this semester.
NUSP Metro Manila in an earlier statement asked CHED to issue clear directives to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to end the semester now, implement mass promotion, waiver of balances and refund of fees, instead of jumping to “flexible learning” for the next academic year.
“But the CHED defers to the HEIs as it has done in the past, rubber stamping tuition increases and now protecting the private school’s profits while washing its hands off its responsibility to uphold student democratic rights and right to education,” added the student leader.
The group said they would like to work with the university administrations to call for subsidy from the government for their institutions and for their teachers to be included in the financial aid the government is doling out, so it would have better capacity to give the students the refund and waiver of fees.
University of the Philippines (UP) students were also unhappy with the university’s decision to end the semester without mass promotion and a deferred grading.
“The decision lacked compassion for the students and their families struggling under the government’s repeatedly and lingeringly failing approach to the pandemic as cases only rise, many persons deaths unaccounted [for not being tested] and hunger and poverty that has worsened. This kind of push for excellence without compassion ingrain in Iskolars ng Bayan to fend for themselves, fight for their own survival, seek the rewards of their college education later on, an antithesis to the university’s icon the Oblation—selfless offering of oneself to the nation. If our health workers on the frontlines are teaching us anything, it is that dictum in the flesh but the university would choose to squander this extraordinary teaching moment by ignoring calls for mass promotion,” said Habagat Farrales, UP Manila University Student Council Treasurer and NUSP Metro Manila Vice Chairperson.
He said the university could have also instead rallied the students to help in whatever way they can in their own communities, allowing this if their academic requirements this semester are no longer in the way. Farrales is also Tulong Kabataan UP Manila coordinator, one of the earliest donation drives that produced masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) sets for the national university’s hospital Philippine General Hospital.
Last April 14,2020, CHED Chairman Prospero De Vera III said that it would be on schools and universities whether to implement mass promotion to practice their “academic freedom.”
“The decision on completion of requirements and issuance of degrees are academic matters that are within the powers of individual universities exercised through their board of trustees or board of regents. These are academic matters that we leave to the universities,” De Vera said in a press briefing.
“There are more than 1,900 universities and colleges in the country with different academic calendars and policies,” the CHED chair explained why they would not release guidelines on mass promotion.
In a Facebook page post, NUSP Metro Manila reported that they continue to receive messages from students regarding online classes, online activities, and other university work in the wake of the pandemic crisis.
Most of universities lifted their suspension of online class last April 30 and some universities continued their online classes. Ateneo de Manila University was lauded by students all over the country for its April 7 decision to shorten their semester, give passing grades to students and refunding their tuition.
