B.

Reflection Paper Format

Name:

Title: The COVID-19 Pandemic through the Lens of Education in the

Philippines: The New Normal by: Jose Z. Tria

Source: https://www.ijpdll.com/download/the-covid-19-pandemic-through-the-lens-of-education-in-
the-philippines-the-new-normal-8311.pdf

The present COVID-19 pandemic has brought extraordinary challenges and has affected the educational
sectors, and no one knows when it will end. Every country is presently implementing plans and
procedures on how to contain the virus, and the infections are still continually rising. In the educational
context, to sustain and provide quality education despite lockdown and community quarantine, the new
normal should be taken into consideration in the planning and implementation of the “new normal
educational policy”. This article presents opportunities for responding issues, problems and trends that
are currently arising and will arise in the future due to COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of
education in the Philippines - the new educational norm.

One of the most recent public health emergencies of global concern is the recent COVID-19 pandemic,
which started in China and almost infected every country in the whole world. This disease is caused by a
novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, previously known as 2019-nCoV) and has received global attention from
growing infections and on how to eradicate the disease and flatten the curve of infections (Guo et al.,
2020). Symptoms include cough, fever and shortness of breath which can be transferred through close
contact with an infected person by coughing, sneezing, respiratory droplets or aerosols (Shereen et al.,
2020). Though it affects people of all ages, it is most vulnerable to adults, children and people with
underlying medical conditions (WHO, 2020b). As of this time, the number of infections and deaths is still
increasing worldwide. In order to avoid the infection, containment, mitigation, contact tracing, self-
isolation, social distancing, wearing of face masks, improved health care systems, hand-washing and
surface cleaning is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO, 2020b).

How about for education? The Department of Education had given a solution to the halt of the teaching-
learning process. Since the DepEd Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones said that “EDUCATION MUST
CONTINUE” with the Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP).

To get the education of the country’s students back on track, the Department of Education (DepEd)
presented its Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP) to the Inter-Agency Task Force on
Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) last May 11, 2020. The IATF approved the BE-LCP, as well as the
proposal to “open” schools on August 24, 2020.

A learning continuity plan seeks to ensure that students’ learning progresses even amidst disasters such
as natural calamities, storms, fires, and pandemics. 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.

This study allowed me to see through the DepEd Secretary and the President’s support and advocacy in
continuing the education despite the pandemic. This article has allowed me to realize that there are still
ways to provide education to the students without compromising their health.

Learning continuity should be based less on method and more on objectives — what do we want our
students to learn and accomplish? From there, we can determine the methods we will employ for the
four aspects of our continuity plan:

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.

As a teacher, I was able to adapt to this change by being able to learn new things. I had to learn how to
make video lessons so that I can provide lessons to my students even if there is a pandemic. With this
study, I hope that the DepEd will still continue to provide technical help to teachers with the use of
technology in teaching and so that I can still teach my students using the online platforms that I am
using now.
UNESCO. (2020). COVID-19 Educational Disruption and Response.

Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse

WHO. (2020a). R&D Blueprint and COVID-19. Retrieved from

https://www.who.int/teams/blueprint/covid-19

WHO. (2020b). Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report - 51.

World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://www.who.

int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200311

-sitrep-51-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=1ba62e57_10