Senator Chiz Escudero wants to give students affected by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng the best relief goods ever:
“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.”
If I were still in College I would have loved this. (Does this apply to graduate dissertations, too?) But nothing’s in it for me now, and back then we earned (almost) every credit, so sorry, I have to be honest: This is too cheesy (Chizy?). Not to mention wrong in so many ways.
Some more affected and effective than others
Students were affected in varying degrees. Some were really hurt (almost drowned, got relocated, got leptospirosis), others were merely inconvenienced (couldn’t watch TV, couldn’t text, couldn’t Tweet).
In the same way, some students were more helpful than others. There were those who went to Payatas to get down and dirty. And then there were those who merely got down on their knees and prayed.
But whether they really got hurt or just hassled, worked or just wished, all students affected get the same sweet deal.
What about yesterday and tomorrow?
Way before Ondoy was even a low-pressure area, a lot of students had already been victims or volunteers. Can those who failed a course because of past typhoons get their grades upgraded retroactively?
And what about the six typhoons forecasted to affect students just as badly? Will they also get free passes? (Bonus Tip: When the global warming gets bad enough, move to Rizal. You can become an engineer, doctor, or lawyer just by surviving a series of storms.)
At least they’re enrolled
“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?”
Let me get this straight: Students cannot go to school because they have no shoes; therefore, they must pass. By this logic, all homeless people must be given graduation certificates. After all, they’ve been incapacitated from going to school for a long time now, and for worse reasons than lack of slippers.
Lessons in life
“…the lessons they learned from this experience are “lessons in life that they will never learn from mere books or classroom work… the lessons that will be taught in helping their fellow Filipinos in need would last a whole life time. “
Sorry Chiz, it works both ways: the lessons students learn from a lecture hall or science lab can never be learned by swimming in floods or helping fellow Filipinos. How efficiently you pack rice and noodles and mineral water into a plastic bag has nothing to do with how well you program an application or perform heart surgery. Though maybe a pass in PE is reasonable (especially in Swimming 101).
Ethics 101: Ulterior Motives
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.
That didn’t sound right. Did he just say that there is importance in helping others while helping yourself? Sorry, I thought that helping others had intrinsic value. Apparently, you can help others, and help yourself to passing marks at the same time. Lesson learned, Teacher Chiz.
The children are our future
Knowing that they passed this grading period would make it easier for them to rise from the devastation brought by the floods.
Yes, that would take the pressure off going back to school. So would copying someone’s homework or cheating on an exam. But these quick fixes and free lunches are not the answer. There are no easy answers.
Senator Escudero’s intentions may be good — he just wanted to help the students somehow. But aside from basic necessities there’s little we need to give these students, especially the volunteers. Letting them grow through this adversity is enough. Don’t rob them of this chance not only to gain maturity, but to earn it.
Crossposted from Filipino Freethinkers
Popularity: 2% [?]
Chiz true color showing so early at 40…trapong trapo ang dating….
If you can fool some of the people some of the time
and a lot of people a lot of times, why not aim higher?
Si Chiz, ambisyosong Pinoy talaga.
May kinabukasan.
errr
Hmm, seems Chiz hated school or something (well, I did too, especially Catholic school, hehehe). First he wants to ditch Math, and now pass the students. Ain’t sensible I agree. At least he could’ve organized a home study or distance learning program to make up for classes so they could at least learn something.
I agree. There are better ways to give consideration to victims. Extending deadlines, rescheduling exams, etc.
This has happened before, maybe some of you have known cases. I know that in 1986, my older brother was in college, BS Physics. I saw his grade report from that time, and asked why one semester was marked full with “Passing.” He said that it was because of the Edsa Revolution. Since time stopped there, so did classes, so the teachers just less them pass so they can move on to the next semester.
This was in UP Diliman, by the way.
Oh my goodness! The experience we have from the disasters have nothing to do with learning of subjects. Chiz Escudero must have been carried away by his emotion. Not all schools served as refugee
centers.
We want Graduates who learned their subjects. Do we? Otherwise, we
will be producing Graduates who are half baked. Then, they will
work on our DAMS and they will design FLOODWAYS. Or manage the Flood
Control Equipments. Heaven help us all!
… then they will run for public office and come up with ideas like this ;)
Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng will help us narrow the number of presidential candidates to a few good men. We now know that Gibo is not good during crisis situations so he’s out. Chiz can’t shut up and continuously say stupid things so he’s out too. De Castro is practically useless without government resources. Gloria is acting more like a mayordoma.
Just do a noynoy – talk to Erap on uniting the opposition while the entire NCR is drowning :D
Or do a Mikey. Drink and make merry while the entire NCR is drowning.
MCB:
Thanks for the validation – Noynoy and Mikey are birds of the same feather! Keep it up :)
Mbuencamino,
What you’re saying about Mikey is obviously based on that infamous viral facebook photo of which no one really knows who that person in the picture is (maybe it is Mikey) but more importantly, we don’t really know when that picture was taken. It could have been taken last year or maybe 5 months ago. But whoever first posted it made sure to put a caption implying that the picture was taken “during” the flooding of Katipunan.
Question 1: How do we prove that the picture was indeed taken on the day Ondoy struck?
Question 2: Is there any time stamp that can prove it?
Question 3: Is there anything in the photo itself, like a clock and calendar that shows that the date on which it was taken was indeed the same day that Ondoy occurred?
Let’s be fair, only the CAPTION, which can be changed or customized by anyone forwarding the photo, led people to assume that the man in the picture who looked like Mikey was indeed Mikey (personally maybe it was him), and more importantly, that the photo was taken on the day of Ondoy.
and Villar so trapo all the way distributing relief goods in ‘Villar’ plastic bags…
Villar is a thick skinned Opportunist. He used the
disaster as an opportunity to get votes. What kind of
a person would take advantage of the sufferings of people? Putting his name on the relief goods. Knowing
he is running for President. This person has no Soul!
@Bitnik52, I think Villar really was the most tasteless. But it makes you think: In the end, he did give them real help. He doesn’t get my vote (none of them do) but it makes you ask who really helped victims the most.
Villar can help a lot because he has oodles of money. His family-in-law is also rich. He became rich in many ways like the C5 project. And He knows once he got the presidency, the wealth he will gain is incomparable to what he is spending nowadays. Indeed the man is a gambler just like most of the trapos in congress…
So he sees the help he’s giving now as a good investment. People who know better will see this, but most of the poor will only see the what’s in it for them immediately. And who can contribute the most votes? Sigh.
Noynoy should have given plastic bags to Villar.
Then win-win; the poor get their relief bags
and the vote-Noynoy Filipinos are happy.
i say no one (among the aspirants) raised to the occassion.
All were running like Chickens without their heads.
Others, just watch the situation. We have useless
people running for Presidents. They cannot help us
from drowning!
I agree joma, Hyden. Too bad it takes tragedies like this to really expose our officials’ incompetence.
Crisis brings out either the best or the worst in people. Thus, you see the true colors of people during crises.
thanks for the link…
the press release is confusing. it seems to be a blanket appeal to convert class hours to hours spent in repacking/volunteer centers.
but later it says something about not being able to go to school coz of destroyed infrastructure — which obviously means he is referring only to schools directly damaged by typhoons.
i think there is a case for not failing the students whose schools/communities are still flooded, so their schools can’t function. there is a somewhat minor case for allocating some school hours to relief work.
trully, lotsa hours in RP schools are already allocated to extra-curricular activities. these can be redirected to serve typhoon victims (here i refer to clubs, CAT, — activities that are already by their nature, ways for students to interact with their community during school hours).
but obviously (again), chiz is referring to something more drastic, culling entire subjects, or even the entire semester for outreach.
he hasnt made the case for it, i think.
@ Gabby
Indeed!
He also has yet to make a case for this one below:
In a blog of Cocoy he linked to a privilege speech that practically suggests removing subjects that has nothing to do with “real world” saying such lines as “sa bilyar ko lang yata nagamit ang geometry.”or something like that.
http://filipinovoices.com/on-the-road-to-2010-this-is-why-chiz-escudero-shouldnt-be-the-next-president
Thanks for the link, karl. If I had read this earlier I would definitely have integrated it with my post.
@Ryan,
You are welcome.
@GabbyD, good points. Like I said in a comment earlier, there are ways to give consideration to victims and volunteers. But Chiz hasn’t made a good case — I doubt if he ever will — for the suggestion he’s making.
Something good that can come out of all this — a different politician coming up with better ideas to help students using Chiz’s intention as impetus.
Chiz: Students should earn credits this semester
October 12, 2009
Opposition senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero on Monday urged education officials to grant students credit for this semester or grading period as a response to the back-to-back typhoons that hit the country recently.
“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.
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Let me react.
Point 1. No one – certainly, not a Chiz (cheese) – can direct either the DECS (old version, sorry) or CHED to pass all the students (elementary, high school, college) in this given semester or grading period simply because the lessons learned from their experience with Ondoy cannot be learned from books or classroom work. This argument is grossly FLAWED.
Point 2. If they are deemed to have passed, Chiz (over)stretched his flawed argument to state thus, “it will give students more time to help in the relief and rehabilitatin efforts which are led by schools or local government units”. Again, this is grossly MISTAKEN VIEW. Under no condition should students be mobilized to undertake relief and rehabilitation efforts since by the very nature of the disaster brought about by Ondoy, the students themselves are its immediate victims. Giving passing grades should not be made an INDUCEMENT for students to instead join relief and rehabilitation efforts. This is most IRRESPONSIBLE for any politician to prescribe.
Point 3. To make students as the needed manpower to man relief centers is utterly INCONGRUOUS to the role of public officials down the barangay to initiate every course of action necessary to address a disaster. It certainly pains me to think that one Chiz Escudero would rather see our students manning relief centers rather than stuck their minds to books, laboratories and classroom works for the much-need quality education.
Point 4. I share serious misgivings whether indeed the State can mandate teachers to pass all students even during such an emergency situation as EDSA. Otherwise, the Professional Regulation Commission should have likewise been mandated to pass all those who took the licensure board examinations during the period of that emergency.
Point 5. It is time to call a spade a spade. This worldview from a Chiz Escudero is utterly shocking. Whoever wrote that press release must have give up on his books when Ondoy flooded nearly every a home.
I must thank Ryan Tani for posting a highly provocative blog, giving way to some of my responses.
And thank you for your points as well. Very insightful :)
i say, that’s genius, chiz!
Does not make sense to me! No explanation is too good for a
senseless remark. Fishes are caught by the mouth. So, are
Politicians.
Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt showed their leadership in their Finest Hour. Which was World War II. It
is during the hard times and times of crissis that you test the good leadership ability of a true leader. They are tested in the Crucible of Fire. All their impurities come out. And you can see the true color of a true leader. Color of which is PURE GOLD!
@Hyden, or in this case, the color of PURE MUD ;)
trapo’s wisdom!!!
Very well-written!
The Ateneo has decided to make all further attendance and exams in this semester optional. It shocked me at first.
Your current class standing will stand as your grade, unless you take the Final Exams, which can improve or worsen your grade. If you can’t make it to school, find a way to prepare for the exams, or stand on your current class standing as it is.
This way you cannot be penalized or flunked simply for being unable to attend classes (which are now optional). But you your performance to-date dictates your grade, and further (optional) effort can improve it.
Solomonic.
Thanks for the info, Tonet :) This is a good compromise, I guess. At least in a way students still get what they earned themselves.
Why haven’t I read your writing before? I like the opinions here, and those of your readers. Good writing begets good writing, I guess.
For the record, let me say that Chiz fulfills Einstein’s thoughts on infinity.
You mean about the universe being infinite? ;)
I only post here occasionally as most of my free time is occupied by http://filipinofreethinkers.org/ . And thanks for the compliments!
Yeah, Einstein was talking about our politicians.
“Only two things are infinite — the universe, and human stupidity. And I’m not sure about the universe.”
:)
ryan tani,
Off topic but I think this one’s right up your alley as well. I’m referring to a news item about PGMA’s approval of a reconstruction commission.
“The proposed reconstruction commission, a so-called ‘bypass route’ that will quicken fund sourcing and hasten the country’s coping mechanism against the effects of calamities, has been signed into an executive order by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said Joey Salceda, economic adviser to Ms. Arroyo and current Albay Governor, on Tuesday.” (inquirer.net)
So far, so good. But then hear this:
“Its members shall be appointed by the President but it will be headed by a dominant business leader with Social Welfare Secretary Esperanza Cabral and Cardinal Rosales as co-chairpersons and the secretaries of departments and heads of business groups and nongovernment organization as members.”
What is Cardinal Rosales doing there? Maybe a Cardinal’s presence would make the politicians think twice before committing any chicanery with the money, but I would think the NGOs and business groups in the commission would be enough to provide some check and balance. Not to mention the institutional checks (i.e. COA and media) that are already in place.
I’m sure the Church is already doing a wonderful job extending material and spiritual assistance to the victims. Cardinal Rosales should turn down the offer out of respect to a Constitution that the Church has stoutly defended in the last several years.
Thanks for this, apanfilo. The church is indeed doing all that it can to help in our current crisis. Unfortunately, and especially in times like these, the wall that separates church and state becomes less visible. I’ll read more about this. Let’s hope that like you said the Cardinal turns down the offer.
Ryan,
Sometimes I think Kafka took his lessons on absurdity using such fodder as that posited by the eccentric senator. Then one wonders how people grow up with an under-developed sense of personal responsibility for achievement.
Joe
Joe: Indeed, there’s a thin line between being sublime and being stupid. I think in this case it’s more obvious which side of the line the senator is on ;)
Chiz’s suggestion should be acceptable to a country where forgiveness of shortcomings is a virtue.
Hi UP n grad, do you mean you accept Chiz’s suggestion?
And while forgiveness of shortcomings is a virtue, as consideration for suffering is, reward for shortcomings is another story. Consideration — make-up exams, postponing of deadlines, etc. — should be enough in this case.
This post should be here –
Or, accelerating the implementation of e-learning in government schools.
Deploying servers and bandwidth is faster and more cost-effective than building classrooms. Creation of online content will create jobs for graduates of Philippine IT courses.
Reducing the movement of students from and to the schools will also help decrease the volume of traffic. Teachers will be able to provide more customized enhanced content, and have more individual interaction with students.
Any location – a sari-sari store, a wet market stall, a jeepney stop can become a virtual classroom that sustains the education of Filipino youth and make them not just competitive but productive as well.
This ‘pasang awa’ proposal is pure populist pa-pogi points.
Hmmmm. Young trapo pretending to be tropa?
Very apt wordplay, Phil.
Pasang awa would’ve made a better title for this post. Nice one, Phil!
Or, accelerating the implementation of e-learning in government schools.
Deploying servers and bandwidth is faster and more cost-effective than building classrooms. Creation of online content will create jobs for graduates of Philippine IT courses.
Reducing the movement of students from and to the schools will also help decrease the volume of traffic. Teachers will be able to provide more customized enhanced content, and have more individual interaction with students.
Any location – a sari-sari store, a wet market stall, a jeepney stop can become a virtual classroom that sustains the education of Filipino youth and make them not just competitive but productive as well.
Good points, BongV. Indeed this is a good argument for development of e-learning.
and its official chiz is running for president….
i dont know if they realized it Chiz Erap Nonoy, Villar and noli decastro will be sharing the anti Gloria votes, while gilbert teodoro will have all the pro gloria votes…
very insightful, rego ego.
From PDI:
PILI, Camarines Sur, Philippines—Camarines Sur Governor Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte Jr. has left the Lakas-Kampi administration party, to which he had belonged since being elected in 2004.
DIGOS CITY, Philippines—Davao del Sur Gov. Douglas Cagas on Thursday bolted the Lakas-Kampi coalition and joined the Nacionalista Party under Senator Manny Villar.
Cagas, considered one of the most influential politicians in Southern Mindanao today, also brought into the NP 57 other Lakas-Kampi officials.
A pattern is now slowly but surely unfolding before our very eyes. Gloria’s lemmings flocking to the annointed one for the final trip to perdition. Goodbye Manny, goodbye Gibo.
Update: Chiz’s suggestion gets a failing grade http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20091013-229896/DepEd-thumbs-down-calamity-diplomas
The Escudero ‘calamity diplomas’ proposal has just been junked by both the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education thereby buttressing the argument that Chiz’s pa-pogi suggestion is simply one of absurdity.
In effect, DepEd thinks it aggravates the problem as it effectively compromises education of children. More and more students might pray for more super-typhoons to come.
CHED is also more circumspect as it may allow students not to take the final exams if they don’t have failing standing. In other words, if they are failing, with or without the final exams, then they get the appropriate failing grades.
So, Chiz’ proposal dissipates in thin air.
Perhaps, Chiz is in fact trying to propose that students be given grades of INCOMPLETE – which they can complete later. Or where they may get a grade of 4, they still can take remedial exams so they attain passing grade.
Either way it goes, it is an intellectual culture present only in UP. Could it be where Chiz is coming from?
The Inquirer reports of a victim of typhoon Parma that
was identified via fingerprints only (the trauma associated
with the death was so severe that the victim was decapitated).
This is another reminder of the need for a national
identification card so that the dead can be easier to
identify based on fingerprints and other biometrics.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20091014-229937/Headless-but-no-longer-nameless
Sen. Escudero is supposed to announce his candidacy but Pepeng struck and foiled his grand entrance. What to do now with Mass Media all readied (some might say paid)? Now he has to come up with comments and press releases, in a hurry, that will pass as “news” to make the most of the lost opportunity, hence the “pass all students” and the damned Dam press releases…
Aquino and Villar must have been laughing hard at Escudero’s predicament…