Critical Reading, Writing and

Thinking
Lady Ciane L. Cruz
 “The Boons and Banes of Academic
Freeze in Time of Pandemic.”

The COVID-19 outbreak is primarily a health crisis. A lot of countries decided

to close their schools, colleges and universities. The crisis crystallizes the dilemma
policymakers are facing between closing schools, reducing contact, saving lives
and keeping them open as it allows workers to work and maintain the economy.
The rigorous short-term disruption is felt by many families around the world.
Home schooling is not only a massive shock to the productivity of parents but
also to children’s social life and learning. Teaching is evolving online, on an
untested and unprecedented scale. Student evaluations also evolve online, with a
great deal of trial and error and uncertainty for everyone. Numerous evaluations
were simply cancelled. It is important to note that these disruptions will not only
be a short-term issue, but can also have long-term consequences for the affected
cohorts and have the potential to increase inequalities. Going to school is the
best public policy tool that can be used to improve skills. While school time can be
fun and can improve social skills and social awareness, from an economic point of
view the primary point of being in school is that it increases a child’s ability. Even
a relatively short time at school does that, even a relatively short period of missed
school will have an impact on skills growth. But can we estimate how much the
COVID-19 disruption is going to impact learning?
 Academic Freeze refers to cancellation or suspension of academic classes
and non-admission to all grade levels. The coronavirus pandemic has forced
educational systems around the world to rethink how learning can still be
offered to students in the face of current uncertainties. On the one hand,
Philippine education leaders have been adamant in their commands that
education must continue and that education cannot wait. On the other hand,
some student organizations have proposed an "academic freeze" where the
2020-2021 school year will effectively be cancelled. The world is now facing a
global pandemic and students are now at risk of contracting the virus.
Enforcement of Academic Freeze in the midst of a pandemic is now being the
issue of the Nation, the Department of Education is considering the suspension
of classes to all levels until the virus is exterminated. Academic freeze will give
the country time to have effective and efficient mass testing not only in the
hands of one, but for a collective and responsive system to push through this
pandemic. It allows them to engage in helping our front liners, attending our
local governments, and in helping the country regain from an economic slump by
conducting inclusive socio-economic volunteer mobilization programs. No
student should be left behind. Education is a right, but the crisis response speaks
of valuing human lives.

Months have passed since the imposition of blended online learning, and
clearly students are the first to feel the pinch of its unforeseen effects. Stress,
pressure, anxiety, sickness, financial problems and depression, these are only a
few of the mental and behavioral effects students are currently facing as they
deal with the adjustments brought by this new educational modality. But what is
even worse is that there were already registered deaths as a result of online
learning. This new configuration of the education system is frankly a rotten
product of illogical decision-making and the uncertain effects of the pandemic.
Millions of students have been left behind because the financial capacity of their
families can no longer meet some of their basic needs, because they have to
prioritize the basics first.
 The suspension of an entire school year will also compromise the development
of the labor sector in our country. Also, instead of being able to finish their studies
on time, graduating students will be obliged to wait one more year before they can
earn their degree which will in turn delay their ability to be employed earn for
themselves and their families. On a side note, the cancellation of licensure
examinations this 2020 is painful because it means that we do not have more
professionals particularly in the health care industry. Cancelling the 2020-2021
academic year can also have a devastating impact on the country's economy. The
prolonged suspension of classes has already forced the closure of hundreds of
private schools throughout the country, forcing teachers who work there
unemployed. Those who demand an academic freeze also faces the reality that
many parents have lost income, if not their job itself, as a result of months of
confinement.

The closure of schools, colleges and universities not only interrupts the
teaching for students around the world. The closure also coincides with a key
assessment period and many exams have been postponed or cancelled. Internal
evaluations may be less significant and many have simply been cancelled. But their
purpose is to provide information on a child's progress for families and teachers.
The loss of this detail, delays the acknowledgement of both high potential and
learning difficulties and can have detrimental long-term consequences for the child.
It is also possible that some students’ careers might merit from the interruptions.
The global lockdown of education institutions is going to cause major and a likely
unequal disruption in students’ learning, disruptions in internal assessments, and
the cancellation of public assessments for qualifications or their replacement by an
inferior alternative. How can these adverse effects be minimized? Schools need
resources to reconstruct the loss of learning once they reopen. How those
resources are used and how we target the children who have been most affected
are open-ended questions. Given the evidence that evaluations are important to
learning, schools should also consider postponing internal evaluations rather than
ignoring them.