Topic 4: Topic 4: Social Class, Social Selection, and Education

Takeaways of Tessa Mae Ejudo Tirador - 1st Year, M.Ed- Guidance

Social class has been primarily the basis of how people see the economic and

social status of a unit in society--- or a family. One’s economic and social status has an

impact also with their educational outcomes. The different social class comes with

different opportunities and access to educational resources. Moreover, cultural capital is

the share of knowledge, skills, and experiences with their environment. Better cultural

capital, also means that an individual is more equipped in going to school. In my previous

takeaways about our previous topics, I have shared different fortunate and misfortunes

that I had experienced during the pandemic. In this paper, I will tackle the intersections of

C19-SC-S-CC in my life as a graduate student.

During the course of the pandemic, lots of new concepts were presented to us

which had made a great impact on education, economics, and the healthcare system.

Numerous concerns and changes latter ascended as it became a habitual entity for many

of us. The Philippines is known to be a developing country that despite the improvements

in the healthcare system, still has difficulty in preparing and responding to public health

emergencies, such as the pandemic brought by Covid-19 (Laguipo, 2021). Our country’s

main challenge is to have enough financial stability in making our healthcare system

more equipped during the pandemic. It has come to the point that the Philippines needed

help from the Asian Development Bank to aid our response program and to strengthen

our healthcare system during that time. Problems had escalated more as the society had to

adjust to the new government after the election last 2022.

Summing up all challenges that our country had experienced, the government was

not the only one who had solely faced it, it had been challenging the common

individuals’ daily lives. Speaking of which, I also had my own share of experiences after

it was announced that the pandemic is now under the control of our government.

As a graduate, my pockets were dared to cope with the demands due to the

uprising costs of living (one effect of the pandemic). This is I think one of the changes

that had really affected me. In view of the fact that I experience that, I had to do sideline

jobs to compensate for my daily living. I did online selling, as a private tutor of a child
with special needs in the afternoon and at night as an ESL tutor while still employed as a

private school teacher. My additional jobs made me more flexible in dealing with

different individuals and it even help me develop my entrepreneur skills. It was all thanks

to the pandemic that online transactions were known by many people. It helped me a lot

to multi-task my work and my studies. It added up to my experiences and learnings.

Along with the advantages I experienced, I also had down moments. It was when I felt

burned out as I do multiple jobs just to compensate for my daily life. It challenged my

mental and physical health to the point that I couldn’t cope with everything I do. It made

me see how the quality of my work fluctuates as I couldn’t give my 100% because of

being tired. I can see how privileged individuals had never experienced it, and it was kind

of frustrating on my end.

Social class and one’s cultural capital really do matter and the pandemic had

made it more visible. Lots of learners who belong to the lower class had experienced how

the pandemic erased their chance to go to school. Working-class individuals had to face

crises in working even more just to cope with higher demands in society. Privileged

individuals became more cautious with their expenses just because of witnessing how the

lower class struggled to survive. The pandemic had made all people realize that change is

constant.
 References:

Works Cited

Bank, Asian Development. “ADB Approves $1.5 Billion Financing to Support the Philippines’

COVID-19 Response.” Asian Development Bank, 24 Apr. 2020, www.adb.org/news/adb-

approves-1-5-billion-financing-support-philippines-covid-19-response.

Laguipo, Angela Betsaida. “Philippines Poorly Prepared to Deal with COVID-19, Report Says.”

News-Medical.net, 13 June 2021, www.news-medical.net/news/20210613/Philippines-

poorly-prepared-to-deal-with-COVID-19-report-says.aspx.

S. Talabis, Dylan Antonio, et al. “Local Government Responses for COVID-19 Management in

the Philippines.” BMC Public Health, vol. 21, no. 1, 21 Sept. 2021,

bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-11746-0,

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11746-0.

“Wepik Next-Gen.” Wepik.com, wepik.com/edit/eefc8690-bf86-4ae0-a582-

b1cc2292e677?lang=en. Accessed 18 June 2023.