Bulacan State University

City of Malolos, Bulacan

Graduate School
Learning Amidst Covid 19: Basis for Redefining of Philippine Educational System

Introduction:
One of the most serious public health emergencies of global concern is the
COVID-19 pandemic, which underway in China and almost diseased 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 consideration from rising
infections and on how to eliminate 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 susceptible to adults, children and people with underlying medical
conditions (WHO, 2020b). As of the moment, the number of infections and deaths is still
growing worldwide. To avoid the infection, repression, moderation, contact tracing, self-
quarantine, physical social distancing, wearing of face masks, improved health care
systems, doing of hand-washing and constant disinfection is recommended by the
World Health Organization (WHO, 2020b). The fight against the threats to COVID-19
pandemic suffered profound effects and influences on almost all sectors in the human
race. These have caused in the widespread disturbance such as travel limitations
(Chinazzi et al., 2020), shutting of schools (Viner et al., 2020), global economic
recession (Fernandes, 2020), political conflicts (Barrios & Hochberg, 2020), racism
(Habibi et al., 2020), and fabrication and arguments (Enitan et al., 2020), to name a few.
One of the most affected is the educational sectors. The COVID-19 pandemic is still
progressing today, and there are no specific vaccines or medicines to eliminate this
disease. We need to accept and live to the new normal; if not controlled, we need to live
with the disease as viruses are continually evolving (Denworth, 2020). Nevertheless,
scientists are still on their way in studying and emerging vaccines and presently in
clinical trials (Cortegiani et al., 2020; Dong et al., 2020; Gautret et al., 2020). For almost
three pandemic months, most countries around the world have temporarily closed
educational organizations to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and reduce
infections (UNESCO, 2020). This pandemic closure has affected more than 1.2 billion
learners worldwide with more than 28 million learners in the Philippines (UNESCO,
2020). The government responses like community lockdown and community quarantine
of numerous countries have directed students and teachers to study and work from
home which led to the delivery of online learning platforms (Crawford et al., 2020).
Though, the implementation of online learning postured different dangers, complications
and trials to both the teachers and students, especially in the higher education
institutions (HEIs) (Bao, 2020). In the Philippines, there are 51, 724 cases as of July 10,
2020 and is still cumulative (DOH, 2020) with more than four million cases worldwide
(Worldometer, 2020). In response to these situations, the educational leaders definitely
decided to adopt the new normal in education. At the basic education, the Department
of Education (DepEd) will be implementing the Learning Continuity Plan (LCP), which
will be in effect this School Year 2020-2021 and classes will open on August 24, 2020
instead of June 2020 (DepEd, 2020).
The uncertainty over the school’s modalities and the program of educational
institutions that will look for different avenues of instructions on the internet. But, life is
not the same anymore. Teachers will miss the interaction with the students face-to-face
and the energy which comes in managing big or small size classrooms.
Students on the other side, turned to prevalent educational learning applications to
understand concepts that teachers in schools and colleges might have taught. Students
are enthusiastic to make sure that they seek to utilize the time by learning something
new online. This will be made possible through the internet by various learning
platforms either free or paid at least one or two hours a day learning new concepts from
different subjects. Various governments globally are organizing online educational
campaigns to crowdsource ideas for improving the online education ecosystem in their
countries. With the internet radically transforming the way education is being offered will
all traditional classrooms move out of the educational institutions and into the cloud in
future?

Mary Jane S. Malapitan

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