Online classes in the Philippines

The Philippines, and its government departments in charge of facing the pandemic, are still struggling to flatten the curve of the COVID-19 virus cases in the country. The local scientists and the Department of Health (DOH) are still on their first stages of developing a vaccine to stop the virus. But the Filipinos have yet to face another national problem–online distance learning programs.

DepEd (Department of Education) and CHED (Commission on Higher Education), who's in charge of planning and development of the updated educational syllabus, are now proposing to implement online class programs to be held in most cities with high rate of the COVID-19 virus. This is to avoid the spike of positive cases on the Metro and nearby provinces.

Since the nationwide lockdown earlier this year (March), lots of Filipinos have faced different struggles in the past 3-4 months. Whereas almost 80% Filipino workers have been laid off of their jobs and thus spiked the rate of unemployment in the country.

Policies such as no work, no pay is being implemented in almost every small business in the Metro and its nearby provinces. They are also forced to keep their employees on a floating status since there is no revenue coming in. They cannot pay them, hence, the policy.

It's also not a secret to anyone who's living or residing in the Philippines how slow and unreliable the internet connection is, and the undeniably awful customer service of these telecommunications corporations fills almost every Filipino with angst and rage.

Every now and then, complaints and rants that are mostly filled with profanity and whatnot, such as posts and short videos that (one way or another) gets attention and eventually becomes viral (for people can very much relate to its content), are posted on different social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook.

These rants are mostly about how terribly slow the internet connection for a postpaid plan that promises seamless data connection for at least connected 5-6 gadgets with a data speed of 20-30Mbps.

Now, how are we going to hold online classes in the Philippines if not all Filipino family have an access to computer, tablet, nor the internet?

Various organizations such as politicians and LGUs have proposals to fund a project that will provide equipments needed for the online classes.

Mayor Vico Sotto, mayor of Pasig City, recently just raised a billion peso fund that aims to provide laptops, tablets, and internet access to every student residing in Pasig. Even the Vice President of the Philippines, Leni Robredo, have also offered the same solution to the Office of the President. There are also other LGUs who have done the same efforts.

However, we will need alternative solutions, for our students without risking their health for a better education.

Also, we need to raise these problems to the national telecommunications industry in the Philippines to up their game and give a better internet service to the Filipino people.