Education in time of a pandemic:

What students and teachers are

in for this coming school year
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 20) — Over 21 million kinder to high school
students have enrolled for the coming school year.

Authorities are considering proposals to allow limited face-to-face classes in low risk
areas. But for the most part, classrooms will remain empty due to safety concerns.

“There will be no face-to-face classes and sessions until we are assured of the safety of
our children and teachers,” Education secretary Leonor Briones said on May 28.

Instead of physical classes, the Department of Education will implement distance or

remote learning.

This method delivers lessons through various ways, including online, television, radio,
and printed materials.

Colleges and universities are also shifting to distance learning, affecting over three
million higher education students.

The new set up is drawing mixed reactions from students.

“Matututo naman po kami kung focus kami sa ginagawa namin,” senior high school

student Sittie Macunte tells CNN Philippines.

[Translation: We will learn as long as we focus on what we're doing.]

Junior high schooler Aaron Matsui, however, prefers the traditional classroom set up.

“Sumasagot po ako lagi. Tapos dito po sa bahay to be honest, laro lang po ako nang
laro,” he explains.

[Translation: I always answer. But at home, to be honest, all I do is play.]

Some youth groups are urging officials to defer the school opening, noting that
thousands of students lack access to the internet.

“DepEd and CHED literally have students begging for money online just so they don’t
get left behind with their academics, which is simply unacceptable considering the
situation we are in,” the Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan spokesman John Lazaro
said in a statement.

Parents worry about extra expense

For some parents, distance learning seems impractical as it could mean spending more
time and money on their children’s education.

They worry about online requirements, and having to pay for internet regularly.

Sari-sari store owner Rowena Matsui is one of them. She has two sons in high school.

“Eh paano kung halimbawa every day yung mga anak ko? Mabigat para sa
amin,” Matsui said.

[Translation: What if my children go every day? That will be difficult for us.]

In private schools, parents are demanding lower tuition since students will be studying
from home.

However, the Coordinating Council of Private Educational Institutions or COCOPEA

says recurring costs cannot be waved, particularly maintenance fees.

“We are now at this crossroads where we don’t know whether we will invest on flexible
learning and make that permanent or we still need to maintain our physical facilities for
our accredited and permit status,” COCOPEA managing director Noel Estrada
explained during a meeting of the House Committee on Basic Education and Higher
Education last July 9.

Education officials have set up web-based platforms where stakeholders can share
learning materials.

For kinder to high school students, there is the DepEd Commons, which can be
accessed free of data charges through a partnership between the DepEd and telcos.

The Commission on Higher Education, meantime, is developing the PHL Connect

website.

It contains text, audio, video, and other digital content that can be used for teaching and
research.

“No ifs, no buts, learning must continue. We learn as one, we are ready,” CHED
chairman Popoy De Vera declared during a press conference on July 10.
Remote learning means more work for teachers
Teachers believe distance learning will require making the extra effort to reach students.

Elementary school teacher Jenny Yabut says some students have no way of
communicating thru the internet.

That means printed learning materials will have to be delivered to them.

“Yung module na gagamitin ng mga bata ay libreng ipapamahagi at kung kelangan

silang puntahan sa bahay gagawin po namin,” Yabut said.

[Translation: The module to be used by the children will be distributed for free and if
home visits are needed, we will do it.]

They now have to create more educational content.

These should contain essential lessons but at the same time, simple enough for
students to digest on their own.

“Hindi ganon kahanda ang mga teachers sa pagbabagong ito. But as a

teacher, kailangan natin mag-adapt,” high school teacher Shirley Buenrostro tells CNN
Philippines.

[Translation: teachers are not fully prepared for this change. But as a teacher, we have
to adapt.]

Whether or not distance learning will be effective, even officials can’t say for certain. But
they insist on trying to make it work rather than do nothing.

A new school year starts in millions of

homes
On Oct. 5, 2020, school year 2020-2021 will open in all public schools around the
country.

There will be no sounds of chatter, laughter, shrieks of delight, giggles.  Neither will
there be high-fives, group hugs, “beso-beso.”  The corridors of public schools will be
empty of jostling pupils.  
For the first time in the history of Philippine education system, school will “open” in
the homes of 22.44 million public school students. Most of them will work on the
printed Self Learning Modules (SLMs) distributed by the Department of Education
(DepEd) while others will be sitting in front of laptops, desktops, iPads, or smart
phones to attend online classes. Some will be viewing lessons shown on the
television, and others will listen to radio-based instruction.

At the ringside seats watching history unfold will be many parents who will be sitting
somewhere in the room with their children — and DepEd officials who will be
monitoring the start of the blended education-distance learning system.

This school opening will be historical on two points: it will be the first time that
school opens not in June but in October — after several controversies and two
postponements. And it is the first time there will be no face-to-face classes for
millions of students. Learning, at this time, will essentially be home-based through
various alternative delivery modalities.

The new educational system is the result of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19)
pandemic.  After the enhanced community quarantine was imposed over Luzon
island in March, things did not look like school would be like the old days.

Despite the challenges, DepEd made a stand and Education Secretary Leonor
Briones announced that, “education must continue.”

As a response to the disruptions in education brought by COVID-19, DepEd

released its Basic Education-Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP) in May.

DepEd Undersecretary Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan said that the BE-LCP was
developed to “provide guidance to the department on how to deliver education in
this time of crisis, while ensuring the health, safety, and welfare of all learners,
teachers and personnel of DepEd.”

One of the key components of BE-LCP is streamlining the K to 12 Curriculum to the

Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELCs). DepEd Undersecretary for
Curriculum and Instruction Diosdado San Antonio said that for this school year, the
total number of competencies in all learning areas has been streamlined to 5,689
from the original 14,171 – practically a reduction by 60 percent.
Alternative learning delivery modalities
Without in-person classes, distance learning became the most viable option for
DepEd. Briones explained that the BE-LCP outlined multiple learning delivery
modalities – with blended and distance learning as major options.

“Distance learning is not new to DepEd,” Briones said. “We have existing Alternative
Delivery Modes (ADMs) in the formal schools, which are not confined to online or
digital platforms,” she explained.

The BE-LCP offers a menu of options or learning delivery modalities. These include
face-to-face, distance learning, blended learning, and homeschooling. Briones said
that the BE-LCP can be “contextualized” by the regions and the schools can “blend”
or blend two or more of these learning modalities to cater to the needs of their
students.

Blended Learning
Blended Learning, as explained by DepEd, “allows for a combination of face-to-face,
online, and modular learning delivery.” Since President Duterte instructed DepEd
not to allow face-to-face classes, parents and students were asked to choose
among the other options.

Distance learning
Should they choose Distance Learning, lessons will be delivered through modules
(both printed and offline), online platforms, and educational programs through
television and radio-based instructions. For DepEd, this is the “most viable for
independent learners and learners supported by periodic supervision of parents or
guardians.”

Home schooling
Another learning delivery modality is Homeschooling which provides children “with
equal access to quality basic education at home to be facilitated by qualified
parents, guardians, or tutors who have undergone relevant training.” Currently, this
policy is being reviewed by DepEd.
Most popular choice – Self Learning Modules
DepEd said that the “most popular choice” of both parents and students is the
printed Self Learning Modules (SLMs).  Thus, the availability of printed modules has
become the most pressing and recurring issue concerning the school opening.

DepEd Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn Sevilla said that funds were made
available to reproduce SLMs. “We have downloaded funds down to division offices,
totaling about P9 billion already,” she added.

Learning materials printed

With the curriculum and learning delivery modalities finalized, Malaluan said that
learning resources are also being completed. As of Sept. 13, DepEd data showed
that a total of 739,372,098 SLMs have been printed and of this, 730,739,147 SLMs
are “ready for distribution.”

Malaluan explained that there are a total of 25,602 schools that have distributed the
SLMs to the learners. “The distribution has started as early as June 4 and will
continue until the opening of classes next month,” he said.

620,000 teachers trained  

DepEd has also trained more than 620,000 teachers and over 7 million parents on
distance learning modalities to help them adjust and cope with the new ways of
teaching and learning. To see how distance learning works, dry-runs for blended
learning were also conducted by around 31,000 schools.

Enrollment – 24.63 M
As of Sept. 25, DepEd said that the enrollment in both public and private schools for
basic education has reached 24.63 million or 88.70 percent  of the enrollment in SY
2019-2020.

Of this number, 22.44 million students have enrolled in public schools and 2.13
million in private schools. For DepEd, the current enrollment turnout is  “very
inspiring and encouraging.”
Challenges
While distance learning is nothing new, Briones said that the scale of deployment of
these alternative learning modalities is something that the agency has not
encountered before.

“Now is the first time that these will be employed on a large scale,” Briones said –
thus, key operational challenges in implementation and other issues are being
encountered.

Financing the new system

One of the biggest challenges of DepEd this year is financing the BE-LCP. Sevilla
said that DepEd has to realign its own budget. “In DepEd, we need to shift or we are
now doing re-calibration of budget because COVID-19 has a really big impact on
how we operate,” she explained. 

Without face-to-face interaction, Sevilla said that DepEd has to invest in

communications devices and requirements to ensure that operations will not be
further disrupted. DepEd also needed to set aside a budget for learning resources
and for the training of teachers – among others. 

False information
However, Briones said that the biggest challenge for her is communication. “There
is so much false information circulating, there’s so much false news, there’s so
much alarmist views being circulated, and it confuses the parents, it confuses the
schools, it confuses the learners,” she added.

School opening challenges

Many groups have been calling for an “Academic Freeze” or the suspension or
cancellation of the academic calendar and non-admission of students across all
levels, believing that the system is not ready to open schools amid the pandemic.

A petition in change.org to “cancel” the academic year 2020-2021 is still posted. As

of Sept. 25, there are 262,993 signatories. The petitioner is targeting 300,000
signatures.
Youth group Samahan ng Progresibong Kabataan (SPARK) is also among many
organizations campaigning for an “Academic Freeze” until January saying this is the
“most humane option which considers the right of all students to a quality and
accessible education without sacrificing teachers and workers’ livelihoods and
students’ health.”

Due to “obvious lack of infrastructure and capacity of the school system for distance
learning,” the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) also agrees that the SY 2020-2021
opening may be “moved to January 2021.”  

Private schools oppose ‘academic freeze’

However, the private education sector has expressed opposition to the calls of
delaying the school opening further.

With about 3,000 members, the Federation of Associations of Private Schools and
Administrators (FAPSA) said that this would ultimately kill private schools that have
been “fighting for their survival.”

The Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA),

composed of more than 2,500 educational institutions in the country, said that the
“freeze will only delay the problems and, in fact, would have more compounding
effects on children.”

No to Academic Freeze — Briones

DepEd has outright dismissed calls for “Academic Freeze.” Briones said that the
Philippines has become the last country in Southeast Asia to open schools amid the
pandemic.

Malaluan added that position is also “short-sighted” and “ill-informed” because it

does not take into consideration the prolonged interruption in the learning process
of children. An “Academic Freeze,” he added, also disregards the preparations
being made just to ensure that school opening will push through next month.

Are we ready?
A week before classes start, the readiness of DepEd to push through with the
school opening is once again being questioned by various quarters.
To assess school opening readiness, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT)
Philippines conducted an online survey on school opening preparedness.

The results of the survey said that while schools and teachers gave their best efforts
to deliver the most minimum needs of the school opening, there are still “glaring
backlogs” especially school safety, teaching and learning resources and techniques,
protection of education frontliners, and installation of support mechanisms.

DepEd is ready
Based on the status updates given to her regularly, Briones said that readiness of
DepEd should not be questioned anymore. “We were ready on Aug. 24 and we’re
more ready for the Oct. 5 school opening,” she said.

Briones said that the Oct. 5 school opening will be a day of celebration for the
Filipino child. “This day would be a declaration of victory, of continuity of education
whatever challenges we are facing,” she said.

Assessment of students’ performance

the ‘biggest challenge’ in blended
learning – Briones
For Education Secretary Leonor Briones, the assessment of students’ performance is the
“biggest challenge” in the implementation of distance or blended learning.

“If we are to look for an area that is challenging, for me it’s the assessment side,
aside from many other factors which have come out because they were not
predicted,” Briones said during the Laging Handa public briefing on Monday, July
19.

Briones noted that in the last school year under blended learning, the biggest
challenge is the “challenge of assessment” because “how do you assess if a child
has learned or has complied with all our requirements?” Due to the coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) pandemic, DepEd has implemented a streamlined curriculum in
School Year (SY) 2020-2021.
DepEd developed the Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELCs) which is
used by schools as a guide amidst the pandemic.

In the previous school year under distance learning, written examinations were
removed as well as the other traditional means of assessing students’ performance.
Output-based assessment was used by teachers to determine and gauge the
learning process among their students.

Briones said that before, students were asked to take examinations, submit written reports,
homework, and projects and they are graded accordingly based on the fulfillment of these
academic requirements.

“But under blended learning, that is not very easy and that is not convenient as well,
so we are paying attention to the assessment side of a child’s performance,”
Briones said.

Recognizing that there are children who might need help, Briones said that DepEd
is holding remedial classes. “We are going to have enhancement sessions for those
we think need more help or because there are also parents also need help,” she
added.