St.

Paul University Philippines

Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500 1

ADAPTATION AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE LEARNING CONTINUITY PLAN: A

RESPONSE TO THE EDUCATIONAL CHALLENGES BROUGHT BY COVID- 19

An Action Research Presented to the Faculty and Staff of

St. Paul University Philippines- Graduate School Department

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements in

EDU 304
Educational Leadership and Management in Educational Institutions

Submitted by:

BRIAN S. INCOGNITO
Doctor of Philosophy Major in Educational Management

Submitted to:

SR. MERCEDITAS O. ANG, SPC

Professor

JUNE 2020

SPUP Graduate School

 St. Paul University Philippines
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500 2

ABSTRACT

The COVID- 19 pandemic poses challenges to various sectors, especially in

responding to basic rights. With the physical distancing and community learning
centers are closed for physical conduct of classes.

In order to provide clear guidance to all offices, schools, and community

learning centers (CLCs) of the Department of Education (DepEd), learners and their
parents, partners, and stakeholders, the Department developed a Basic Education
Learning Continuity Plan (BE- LCP). This plan overcomes obstacles created by the
disasters through innovative means of teaching and learning, keeping students on
track with their courses. With today’s COVID-19 pandemic, the main obstacle that has
to be overcome is the need for social distancing, making face-to-face interaction
impossible. Therefore, any learning continuity plan to be implemented today has to
account for this limitation.

How can this plan be implemented by latter or by the stakeholders? Will it be

effective with regards to the quality of education in terms of delivery and modality? And
what are the necessary inputs or materials needed to be prepared in response to this
challenges.

With this, this action research aims to address on how the Claveria School Arts
and Trades would respond to the COVID-19 educational challenges and how will they
support programs of the Department of Education in line with the released BE- LCP.

KEYWORDS: COVID-19, Pandemic, Educational Challenges, Policy, Programs,

Students, Teachers, Administrators, Stakeholders

INTRODUCTION

The 2019 coronavirus disease is a global health emergency of unprecedented

proportions. The ongoing loss of life globally as well as the virus’s ability to spread
rapidly through communities, has generated a need for significant changes in the way
the education community operates, educates and delivers services to students and
families.

Responses to the pandemic within the education community have varied from
heroic to problematic, as educators, leaders, administrators and education policy
workers navigate shifting information, priorities, resources, and political and economic
concerns. As education leaders have responded to the current crisis, many challenges
and obstacles to providing essential educational services have emerged. Additionally,

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 St. Paul University Philippines
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500 3

questions have been raised about whether and how students and schools can meet
education policy expectations, how schools can provide adequate support for students,
particularly those with special educational and mental health needs, and how education
leaders, including, but not limited to: principals, head teachers, superintendents,
teacher leaders and so on can collaborate and coordinate with government, non-profit
and other stakeholders to meet student needs. Along those same lines, many
universities are providing substantial support to schools, districts and emerging
leaders, sharing resources, advice and support as practitioners search for answers and
ideas for how to proceed. In this special issue we hope to capture and provide an
opportunity for analysis and critique of these and other challenges, responses,
successes, mis-steps, ironies, and policies which have developed or transformed as
the Corona Virus spread across the globe.

THE BASIC EDUCATION LEARNING CONTINUITY PLAN (BE- LCP)

The Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan (BE- LCP) which stands on the
following principle:

a) Protect health, safety and well- being of learners, teachers and

personnel, and prevent the further transmission of COVID- 19;
b) Ensure learning continuity through K-12 curriculum adjustments,
alignment of learning materials, deployment of learning delivery
modalities, provision of corresponding training for teachers and school
leaders, and proper orientation of parents or guardians of learners;
c) Facilitate the safe return of teaching and non- teaching personnel and
learners to workplaces and schools/ CLCs, taking into consideration the
scenarios projected by DOH and IATF , complimented by other credible
sources, and balances with DepEd’s own risk assessments;
d) Be sensitive to equity considerations and concerns, and endeavor to
address to them the best we can; and
e) Link and bridge BE-LCP to DepEd’s pivot to quality and into the future of
education, under the framework of Sulong Edukalidad and Futures
Thinking in Education.

FOCUS ON THE ESSENTIALS

Learning continuity should be based less on method and more on objectives —

what do we want our students to learn and accomplish? From there, school leaders
can determine the methods they will employ for the four aspects of the continuity plan:

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 St. Paul University Philippines
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500 4

Communications – Ways of providing direct teaching, asking and answering

questions, discussing the lesson, and communicating instructions about
activities and other matters about the course.

Materials – Includes the content lessons are based on, references, and
materials needed for learning activities

Learning activities and assignments – Activities that would facilitate learning

that could include role-playing, case studies, group discussions and
presentations, and problem-solving

Assessments – Means of measuring the progress of the students’ learning

Given our current situation, all four aspects of learning continuity should be
geared towards distance learning to keep all students safe by maintaining social
distance.

LEARNING ACTIVITY SHEETS

Relative to the implementation of new normal for the incoming School Year
2020-2021, the development of the Learning Activity Sheets (LAS) shall be based on
the Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELC) issued by the Central Office.

The LAS shall be utilized by learners during the home learning sessions AND
shall cover one week activities, however, this will depend on the needs and conditions
of the learners.

INNOVATIVE USE OF TECHNOLOGY

Collaborative platforms like MS Teams provide a venue for virtual classes.

Here, school heads and teachers can give direct instruction, facilitate discussions, and
conduct activities complete with presentation slides.

On top of that, schools can also employ educational apps where you can
assess your students’ progress and get recommended activities based on that
assessment. What’s more, the platform also gives you access to interactive content
that you can use in teaching your course.

CONTINUING BEYOND THE CALAMITY

The learning continuity plan need not be a stop-gap solution for a crisis. The
innovations you introduce could be implemented into your regular course instruction
even after the calamity. Doing so opens new ways of learning and pursuing the course

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 St. Paul University Philippines
Tuguegarao City, Cagayan 3500 5

for you and your students. What’s more, the continuity plan ensures that learning
continues even if major disasters occur.

CONCLUSION

The Pandemic that is ravaging the globe is likely to cause the most serious
disruption to educational opportunity in at least a century. The studies and lives of
those currently in school will be impacted in multiple ways, some yet to be understood.
Most immediately, because necessary physical distancing measures will interrupt – or
have already - their opportunity to attend school they will learn less than they would
have otherwise. Furthermore, they will forget much of what they learned this academic
year, experiencing a variation of the well-studied phenomenon of ‘summer loss’ except
that it will not be in the summer. School systems and governments will attempt to
establish alternative modalities of education during the period of necessary social
distancing, but those will most likely work well for children whose parents have more
education, who have other social advantages, and who have access to resources,
including online connectivity and devices, so they can continue to enjoy structured
opportunities to learn. For many children lacking those conditions, the period of
physical distancing is likely to result in very limited opportunities to learn.

In recommendation, the school must be in full support with the Department of

Education with its implementation of the BE- LCP and they must continually develop
possible innovations to address the foregoing concern of the educational challenges
brought by COVID- 19.

REFERENCES

www.frontiersin.org

www.deped.gov.ph

newsroom.nuadu.com

news.mb.com.ph

inquirer.net

www.worldsofeducation.org

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