Mass promotion is imposed compassion

THE opposition to online learning during the coronavirus pandemic appears to be noisy, even vitriolic. Critical voices that are articulated both by students and faculty have reached fever pitch. And it is worrisome that sometimes they border on the slanderous, and oftentimes they are clothed in morally righteous rage where critics impugn the moral integrity of those whom they criticize.

It is easy to fear change, something that is magnified by this pandemic. But we have to be reminded that people pursue higher education to acquire knowledge, skills, attitudes and values that enable us to deal with the challenges and uncertainties of the world. As such, instead of demanding the end of the term and the suspension of online learning, the more functional demand should be for universities to equip themselves with the capacity and train their faculty in the modality that will be the new normal for education, which has now become an inevitable face of the future.