CHIZ SAYS STUDENTS SHOULD EARN CREDITS THIS SEMESTER

Opposition Sen. Chiz Escudero is proposing that students be granted credits for this semester as a response to the shortened class hours following the back to back typhoons that hit the country recently. Escudero said the crisis has created a situation where students should be given a passing grade for this semester. "I urge the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education to pass all students affected by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng in elementary, high school, and college levels for the current semester or grading period," he said adding that the lessons they learned from this experience are lessons in life that they will never learn from mere books or classroom work."

Escudero said that this will give students more time to help in the relief and rehabilitation efforts which are led by schools or local government units. "If you notice, when classes were cancelled at the height of the two typhoons, thousands of students flocked to various operations centers to volunteer. Now that they have gone back to school, these same relief centers are already short of manpower," he added.

He said that the lessons that will be taught in helping their fellow Filipinos in need would last a whole life time. He explained that this is not the first time the government would do this. He said that this was implemented during the first Edsa Revolution.

"During Edsa 1, teachers were mandated to give P or passing marks to students since the whole country was under an emergency situation at that time," he said. He said that the purpose of giving passing grades to the students who have practically lost their school materials, houses, or even relatives is to be able to see the importance of helping others while helping themselves.

"How can a student go back to school and concentrate on their studies if they do not have shoes or even slippers to protect their feet from the floods? Knowing that they passed this grading period would make it easier for them to rise from the devastation brought by the floods," he emphasized.