DIGITAL ART by Xavier Kent Ronan Paunil.
The pandemic has caused majority of students to have a huge gap in learning. In response, the Department of Education (DepEd) plans to terminate extracurricular activities, so students can focus more on their academics in this school year 2022-2023.
Due to the pandemic, two years have gone by wherein students were stuck in their homes, forced to learn on their own through modules or online. Because of this, students experienced struggles in learning. Academics have majorly gone downwards ever since, which caused major learning gaps among students.
“We need to focus more on the academics of our students to catch up on the learning losses during the two years that they were not able to have in-person classes,” Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte stated on a visit in Don Pedro Vasquez Memorial School in Jordan, Guimaras.
Even though DepEd’s purpose for the decision seems valid, many have voiced out against the decision. To numerous netizens, it is necessary for students to be involved in extracurricular activities for their holistic development.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Chairman Vladimer Quetua, stated last August 30 that, “Extracurricular activities contribute to the holistic development [of students] and provide them [with] different forms of enjoyable activities that also serve as respite from intensive formal academic work.”
Although it is true that two years have gone by without face-to-face classes, which caused learning gaps for many students, it is also true that students were stuck in their homes for two whole years, enabling them to have no in-person interaction with fellow students. For this very reason, banning extracurricular activities will kill the excitement of students towards face-to-face classes—which will finally allow them to engage on their outdoor social life more.
We have to accept the fact that not all students excel in pure academics only. Yes, some students do find curricular activities fun, but there is no doubt that more students find extracurricular activities more fun and engaging.
Extracurricular activities are the go-to activities for students who do not excel in academics, but excel in other fields. Not only are extracurricular activities fun and enjoyable, it also build up skills, develop talents, create fun memories, and teach valuable lessons, which are all equally valuable to knowledge gained through textbooks and lessons.
The great science genius, Albert Einstein once wrote, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”
Every student has their own weaknesses and strengths. But just like a fish, if you tell an athlete to excel in mathematics, the athlete may think that it is stupid. Adapting with fins and gills in this perspective, why should you spend time on pushing yourself into excelling in something you really do not excel in, instead of actually being able to swim and show the true strength and purpose of a fish?
All students can excel and incline, however, not in similar ways. So if we put students on the same track, knowing that that is not where some of them belong in, it will be just like giving the same medicine to various patients with different illnesses.
Therefore, banning extracurricular activities will do no good to students. Instead, the DepEd should let students express themselves in fields where they excel at and truly enjoy doing. Do not stop students from fulfilling their purpose, rather, let them all equally enjoy high school life at its fullest, along with their different fortes.
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