Mike Nosmas L.

Castro BSRT 2A

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On the 22nd of April year 2021, in joined cooperation of the Department of Health and Commission on Higher
Education Region 6, conducted a webinar entitled “Mental Health Preparedness” headed by May Ann Soliva-Sta.
Lucia, MD. Throughout the whole webinar, it was emphasized the importance of mental health especially the mental
status of the students under the system of the so-called “New Normal.”
Is learning in the new normal possible? This question pop-out right of my mind when I was listening to the
webinar. As a student, battling it out, struggling to chase my dreams no matter what mode of learning it is can be
frustrating. The things that I’m usually good at back then when it was face-to-face classes are vanishing one by one
until what’s left in me is a tiny blink of light trying to illuminate the cascading darkness that’s slowly enveloping my
whole self. Indeed, it was a quest for survival. Day by day I’m getting succumbed to the fact that my mental health is
deteriorating. That it was in a state of chaos.
In the webinar, they talk about the possible reasons why online classes had caused massive disruption of
the mental health of the students. I have to admit, being in an online class had made me lazier than before. Being in
the comfort of my room made me procrastinate more than ever. At some point, yes, I am part of the reason why my
mental health is not as stable as before. I’ve become more agitated and hot-headed. Losing control of my temper
even when the reason is just as small as someone talking to me when I’m busy with something. Tho I can say that
this is only a part of the reason why my mental health, our mental health is degrading. The system itself, the whole
education system of the Philippines is broken, broken in a way that we are rushing in making decisions. For example,
in K-12, I have to be honest but I do think that implementing K-12 without properly planning it was a huge misstep.
I’ve wasted 2 years of my life on something that was not credited for college. I have to retake those subjects that I
took back then – contrary to the promise of taking just the major subjects in college, and now, online classes. When
everyone is still anxious and trying to adjust to the new setup. I don’t think that the students were given the choice. It
was to go or not to go. And as a student who doesn’t want to get delayed any further, I have no choice but to go. I
can’t afford to extend the years of my education because by now if K-12 was not implemented, I would have been
preparing for boards. Taking into consideration, the expenses that my parents have invested in me, I have no choice
but to go.
The webinar then talks about how the school was handling the situation. The measures they do to address
the problem of mental health among its students. Is organizing a webinar just enough? Is it an effort to just raise
awareness about it? Because we have to admit that this issue of mental health is real and has snowballed. That it
isn’t just something that the students are using as an excuse to avoid doing school works. At this point, the webinar
had talked about how can the teachers be of help in this issue. About the relationship of the teacher and the student.
“Let students talk about their feelings and help reframe their concerns into the appropriate perspective,” this is just an
example of the many examples I’ve taken from the webinar.
To wrap it all up, I have learned so much but at the same time, it is not enough. Just a webinar alone is not
enough to address the problem but it is good enough to be a starting point of addressing the problem.