Passing grade for students from flood devastated provinces thumbed down

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) gave a failing grade to the idea raised by a Marikina City based educator to give passing grades to all students this semester, whether from public or private schools in the Central Luzon provinces of Tarlac, Pampanga, and Bulacan that were devastated by heavy rains and floods brought by typhoons “Pedring” and Quiel”.

In a statement issued to respond to the call made by Eleazardo Kasilag, president of the Federation of Associations of Private Schools and Administrators (FAPSA), DepEd said that giving passing marks to the students would aggravate the loss the young children suffered, by not giving them the education received by their counterparts in other parts of the country.

“The calamities that hit Central Luzon have left the students and their families with nothing, some even almost lost their lives. Hence if we would give them passing grades with that premise, we won’t compensate for the lost school days, rather, we would only steal from them the opportunity to learn and effectively deprive them of a quality education,” Cristina Ganzon, DepEd Communications director, said.

Ganzon pointed out that the giving of blanket passing grades would be giving up on ensuring that school children get the learning competencies that they should have according to their age group.

“While we empathize with our students and their families after their ordeal brought about by the recent typhoons and floods, we cannot and we should not give up on these students’ education. It is not enough to just give them passing grades without the proper interventions and appropriate evaluation tools,” Ganzon stressed.