The University of the Philippines community calls on the university’s Board of Regents to consider mass promotion amid the COVID-19 crisis.
University of the Philippines Board of Regents requested to consider mass promotion
The top state university in the Philippines is calling the Board of Regents (BOR) to push through the mass promotion policy on all of the University of the Philippines campuses all across the country. This is in line with the indefinite duration of the COVID-19 lockdown.
As a premier state university in the country, the UP Office of the Student Regent (OSR) urges the BOR to take the first step in showing an example of compassion for its students and teachers at a time of crisis. An early end for Academic Year 2019-2020 and mass promotion for students in all UP campuses is the call of students and teachers right now.
This is a screenshot from the proposed mass promotion policy of the Student Council at the University of the Philippines campus in Cebu.
Link to original Facebook Post
But the President’s Advisory Council (PAC) in the university is suggesting a different scenario for the BOR. The PAC suggests that the semester will end on the 30th of April, with students be marked with deferred grades, which they can complete until the end of March next year.
Student Council wants mass promotion rather than extended completion
Despite the decision imposed by the PAC, the student council stands firm in their analogy that deferred grades don’t take away the anxiety among students from the crisis they are in right now. Some might even go to the extent of breaking quarantine guidelines so that they won’t be extended in their stay in college.
But on some University of the Philippines campuses, professors have already taken the initiative of letting their students pass their classes as a form of sympathy in a terrible crisis that we are all in right now. The professors acknowledge the difficulty of focusing in the academe when an unseen virus is lurking around, for the health and welfare of the students, they decided to waive class requirements, exams and passed all their students despite their current class standing.
This is not the time to put weight more on our obligations to the education sector, it is a moral decision, and we are okay with it. Video and reading materials are still handed out for those to self-study to keep them in pace for the next semester.
On the other hand, there was no mention of professors passing students on their thesis requirements. This might be a bit different case since the impact will be way different from passing a regular subject. Students graced by generous professors are thankful that a burden has been lifted from them.
