Introduction

Background of the Study

Our elders have always emphasized the significance of education in one's life, regardless of how

dreadful one's circumstances in life are. In fact, there is this saying that goes, "Education is the

only inheritance which nobody can take away from you." It is valued highly in our nation as a

way to improve one's quality of life. Eventually, this saying was challenged during the COVID-19

outbreak that hit the whole world. Many lives were changed including the lives of the students.

But, despite the pandemic's financial and physical effects, the institutions as well as the

students somehow tried to keep up the continuing process of learning.

In the Philippines, to continue education, the Department of Education (DepEd) established

distance learning modes to guarantee learning continuity in response to the COVID-19

epidemic. DepEd is aware of the difficulties in providing alternative learning modalities to the

27.7 million pupils enrolled in basic education, nevertheless. According to data, the difficulties

of remote learning and unequal access to resources could cause underachieving and

underprivileged students to lag behind even further. Prior to the pandemic, concerns about the

quality of basic education were brought up since the Philippines consistently came in last in

regional and international learning evaluations. Given these issues, the institution realized that

indeed the country still has a lot to develop if it wants to realize a progressive and meaningful

way of learning. Thus, it is were the DepEd secretary announced that the country has to go back

to the usual way of learning which is through face-to-face but has to be limited for the health

protocols to be properly observed.

In 2021, hundred public schools have received approval from the Department of Education

(DepEd) to participate in the pilot program for small, in-person classrooms beginning on

November 15. These schools are located in regions that the Department of Health has

identified as low-risk for COVID-19. Additionally, on the same year on November 22, twenty

private schools  held in-person classes as per intstructed by the Department of Education. As

months keep on changing, many schools were also given the signal to formally open the limited

face-to-face mode of learning including both public and private schools in the region of

Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

In the region of BARMM, one of the schools that observed limited face-to-face is the Cotabato

State University - University Laboratory High School. CSU-ULHS has implemented the said

program in the month of August year 2022. The said school divided the students for the

students to be catered given the availability of the classrooms. Every Mondays, Wednesdays

and Fridays the senior high school students will have the face-to-face mode of learning while

every Tuesdays and Thursdays the junior high school students will take the turn. Moreover, the

students are having an online classes during the days they are not having face-to-face. But,

given all the issues and concerns that were present these days, are the students of the school

especially the level 9 hundred percent ready to have these kind of settings? Will they be able to

cope up with the hardships that it may bring?