Since its outbreak two years ago, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted education

systems globally, affecting the most vulnerable learners the hardest. It has increased inequalities
and exacerbated a pre-existing education crisis. School closures have ranged from no closures in
a handful of countries to up to more than a full school year. Lack of connectivity and devices
excluded at least one third of students from pursuing learning remotely. Today, despite the
Omicron variant, schools are open in the majority of countries, supported by health and safety
protocols and vaccination programs. But the costs stand to be tremendous in terms of learning
losses, health and well-being and drop-out. Prioritizing education as a public good is crucial to
avoid a generational catastrophe and drive a sustainable recovery. To be more resilient,
equitable and inclusive, education systems must transform, leveraging technology to benefit all
learners and building on the innovations and partnerships catalyzed throughout this crisis.
Source: https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse
Evidently, the stated findings of UNESCO mirror the local state of education even in the
last mile schools of the country where school children are mostly affected. Though there are
existing government programs that are being implemented to help the people distressed by
COVID19, still they believe that it was not sufficient.
Meanwhile, the Philippines have had schools closed for more than 41 weeks and since its
closure until its resumption of limited face to face classes under the Joint Memorandum
Circular No. 1 of the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Health (DoH) in
consultation with the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), the
affected learners reached a staggering 26,950,670 where 11,346,712 being secondary school aged
children. (Data from UNESCO Institute for Statistics)

(https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse)
 As a result of this closure, UNICEF Philippines Representative Oyunsaikhan
Dendevnorov said that it forced students to enroll in distance learning modalities. The
associated consequences of school closures – learning loss, mental distress, missed vaccinations,
and heightened risk of drop out, child labour, and child marriage – will be felt by many children,
especially the youngest learners in critical development stages.

On a national level, COVID19 cases has reached a staggering 3,688,941 though as of

this writing there are only 2,252 active cases while the recoveries have amounted to
3,626,234 which is 98.30 %. However, the death toll is now at 60,455.

(https://doh.gov.ph/covid19tracker)
Meanwhile, as per report from the published online report of the DoH on May 2022,
Central Luzon have tallied a total case 362,069 where 355,191 recovered but 6,633 have
succumbed to this disease. Also, in Tarlac Province the cases reached 28,965 where 28,336
have recovered but sadly 603 have perished. These numbers manifest the severity of cases
affected by COVID19 even in the outskirts of the Philippines that contributed to the fear of
contracting the disease while children are in school.

(https://doh.gov.ph/covid19tracker)
 (https://doh.gov.ph/covid19tracker)

But in Tarlac province alone, as of their latest published data dated March 31, 2022, the total
number of active cases were reported were only three (3) which come from Tarlac City, Gerona and
Camiling with one case each. Thus, resulting to being on Alert Level 1 status of Tarlac Province.

(https://www.facebook.com/ProvincialGovernmentofTarlac/photos)
 Locally, Moncada has recorded a total of 772 cases where 718 of the patients have
recovered while there are at least 54 deaths. As of this writing, there is zero case for the
town.

(Source: Moncada RHU)

 (Source; Moncada RHU as of May 2022)
From the 17 feeder barangays of Moncada National High School, eight of which
belongs in the top ten barangays that has high COVID cases.

(Source: Moncada RHU)

Though the figures may be alarming, especially so that most of the nearby
barangays of the school and where the school is located have recorded high number of
COVID cases, it is not a deterrent factor in the continuation of learning as it is evident in the
total number of enrollees for the past two school years.
 It can be seen on the table above the number of enrollees in school year 2019-2020,
which is the onset of COVID19 pandemic, was at 2211 but it grew to 2540 which is quite a
big leap in comparison to the pre-pandemic number of enrollees. Since then, the number of
enrollees have risen to 18 percent as opposed to just the two percent increase in school
year 2017-2018 and 2018-2019.
Meanwhile, during the COVID 19 pandemic and with the introduction of Progressive
Expansion of Limited Face-to-face learning modality as mandated by the Joint
Memorandum Circular No. 1(JMC1) by the DepEd and DOH, a huge chunk of MNHS parents
and enrollees have signified intent to participate in the F2F.
However due to the guidelines incorporated by the JMC1, only a maximum of 20
learners per classroom is permitted for the junior high school and lesser in the senior high
school. MNHS on the other hand has managed to meet the guidelines set and proceed with
the limited F2F.
 As seen on the table, it is very evident that Modular Print modality still holds the
majority of learners with 1851 followed by face to face with 297 and coming it at third is
online modality with just 280 and lastly Modular digital with only a handful of 173 out of
the total learners’ population.
It can be further noted that the Modular print is ranked 1 among the modalities due
to numerous factors such as unavailability of digital gadgets and internet connectivity for
online and digital learners. In contrast to face to face modality, it only came in second since
JMC1 limits the number of allowable learners per classroom plus the underlying
preparations involved in the said modality.
Looking deeper into the data presented and despite the threat posted by the
dreaded COVID19, the tables show that regardless of the local effect of the pandemic,
education in Moncada National High School did not falter in providing the optimum end
result of further educating the learners. With the continuing implementation of the Basic
Education Learning Continuity Operational Plan (BELCOP), the delivery of lessons through
the different learning modalities has been a major factor in engaging the learners to pursue
their education in spite of the absence of the physical appearance of the teacher before
them.
 Achievement Rate per Subject
SY 2019-2020 & SY 2020-2021
92 90.25 90.56 90.00
89.63 89.49
90 88.20 87.77 87.36
88 86.17
84.64 84.87 84.39
86 83.51 83.86 83.55
84 82.03
82
80
78
76
FILIPINO ENGLISH MATH SCIENCE AP TLE ESP MAPEH

2019-2020 2020-2021

ACHIEVEMENET RATE

88.09
89.00

88.00

87.00
84.90
86.00

85.00

84.00

83.00
2019-2020 2020-2021

As a matter of fact, the comparative data gathered for SY 2019-2020 (pre-pandemic

SY ) and SY 2020-2021 (pandemic SY) there is a big increase in Achievement Rate of about
3.76%. Clearly it is an indication of how much the learners are eager to continue in their
education with the help of the supervision of their parents and the massive teachers’
preparation of modules and other learning paraphernalia.
However, the battle with learning continuum is far from over. There are still plenty
of preparations, adjustments and re-adjustments of programs and activities involved in the
teaching and learning process. Yet, the Department of Education with all the divisions and
the schools under its wings tirelessly perform their duties in order to live up to the
departments’ mantra – “Para sa Bata, Para sa Bayan.”