They want to keep kids in school.
“Officials of the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA) said the proposal of Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis Tolentino to reduce the number of school days is not the appropriate solution to address traffic jams in Metro Manila,” reports Helen Flores in The Philippine Star.
In a press conference, Bro. Narciso Erguiza Jr., president of the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP), said, “That is to me a wrong response to a problem. Let the schools deal with it (traffic). Let them have their own adjustments. They (government) should be more proactive in the way they respond to problems.”
READ: MMDA pushes 4-day school week, cites 15 major projects as reasons
For his part, COCOPEA vice president Vicente Fabella emphasized that “there is high correlation between teacher-student contact time and student learning, so reducing the school days by 20 percent would have an effect on the students’ learning.”
Fabella’s statement was echoed by COCOPEA executive director Joseph Noel Estrada, who said, “We cannot sacrifice the learning opportunities of students by shutting down schools.”
