EDITORIAL - Getting really ready for face-to-face classes

With the dropping of the numbers of COVID-19 infections comes the normalization of the different aspects of life and the various sectors of society.

Business and tourism seem to be making headway now, but education seems to have been left behind. For two years now our pupils and students have had to deal with several modes of learning, one of which isn’t exactly conducive to learning but totally favorable to cheating.

It is a system that cannot be sustained for long.

Fortunately, the government has seen it fit to declare it safe to resume face-to-face classes in some areas, including Cebu City. For now these schools are in the city’s mountain barangays.

Before any schools in the city’s lowlands are reopened, there should be things taken into consideration.

Again, you can’t open a school alone. A school needs a lot of support from the community around it; stores to take care of supplies and certain services, transportation to move its students, and the barangay itself to keep its surroundings safe, just to name a few.

Opening a school entails fully activating the area around it. And with that comes the people who serve that community, both the cautious and the careless when it comes to the coronavirus. So the different local government units must be prepared for this eventuality.

Aside from getting the community ready, the children themselves should also be readied to go to classes in what we call the new normal.

We should remind our children that there is still a pandemic going on and that they should take all the precautions they have been taught during the tough times under quarantine.

For the younger students in particular, those who need playtime with others, those who don’t have the inhibition or caution of adults, this may be a little tougher to ingrain.

Again, the new normal they are stepping into will be full of the cautious and the careless people; the children should be taught to err on the safe side.

Because our goal is to eventually restore face-to-face classes in all levels, we must not forget that the new normal comes with new rules, new challenges, and new dangers to consider.