Suicides and distance learning
The Department of Education (DepEd) appealed to the public to refrain from directly connecting suicide cases to distance learning and the use of modules. According to DepEd, some individuals and groups use reports on the deaths of teachers and learners to discredit the Department’s efforts.
Reports on the internet linked the suicide of a third-year college student from a local state university to his failure to submit his learning modules on time. The victim allegedly got frustrated when his teacher refused to accept his late module. However, the report from police authorities shows no connection with the alleged reason for his suicide.
There are attempts to link suicide cases in other provinces to learners’ difficulties with their modules and online classes. But DepEd quickly belied these claims, citing a lack of evidence showing that problems with module matter cause the learners to end their lives.
In Cebu City, three students allegedly committed suicide due to difficulties in answering their self-learning modules, but education officials said it is unfair to blame the Department for the students’ death because there is a need to see the causal connection between modules and the students’ condition. Officials said even psychologists could hardly connect the self-learning modules to suicides.
Suicide has been a complex problem that can be attributed to several factors. Blaming a single factor such as difficulties in answering the learning modules may add to the bereaved family’s pain and suffering. It is also unfair to blame our educators for every death of a learner.
Educators, however, must remember that our educational system is in crisis. Not a single stakeholder in the system is spared from the hardship. The current situation calls for a system of education that gives utmost compassion and flexibility to all education participants. While learning continuity is important amid this pandemic, we should not lose sight of the fact that stakeholders’ physical and mental well-being must be given paramount consideration.
Educational endeavors among all stakeholders must not reward technological, gender, economic, and socio-cultural edge that only a privileged few enjoy. For education amidst this crisis to be successful and meaningful, it must rest on the bedrock foundations of the values of compassion, empathetic understanding, and solidarity.