No Scapegoats Please

Umay kaha ila hibay-an? A collective fear dawned on both the educators and the parents as they realized that there will be no face-to-face classes to be conducted in the midst of the pandemic. It is going to be dangerous to all when people converge. Better, the schools will opt to choose blended learning which includes modules, worksheets, digital lessons and even TV and radio broadcasts. But then the question persists: What would be the quality of learning of these modalities?

Teacher and school heads’ competence count. If these educators pour out their best and utilize their knowledge, skills and positive attitude towards the situation at hand, there might be a silver lining on the thick clouds of doubt.

Competence according to dictionary.com is the quality of being competent; adequacy; possession of required skill, knowledge, right attitude, qualification, or capacity. That is the reason why these professionals underwent competency-based examination conducted by the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) to measure whether they are competent enough to be licensed or not.

Competencies are the skills and knowledge that enable a teacher to be successful. To maximize student learning, teachers must have expertise in a wide-ranging array of competencies in an especially complex environment where hundreds of critical decisions are required each day (Jackson, 1990).

Effective teachers are able to explain difficult concepts clearly and concisely. They facilitate discussions, organize interactive sessions, and provide constructive feedback to their students.

The challenge during these difficult times is how to deliver the key learning to the students through their chosen modality. There are some teachers in the field who have the needed knowledge and skills but lack the empathy and needed attitudes to cater the diverse needs of the learners. There are those who feel that a one-size-fits-all scheme is effective since they do not have the patience to diversify. There are also lots of principals and supervisors who consider instructional supervision as burden to them where in fact this must be their main role in the education processes.

Then, there will be the practice of putting the blame on something: the virus, the students themselves, the department for not giving the measures, the system and many other things to find a way out. According to Brahm (2004), scapegoating is a psychological defense mechanism of denial through projecting responsibility and blame on others. It allows the perpetrator to eliminate negative feelings about him or her and provides a sense of gratification. Furthermore, it justifies the self-righteous discharge of aggression.

It can be observed that the Department of Education (DepEd) is exhausting all the resources to capacitate the teachers and educators in the field with webinars and online discussions on the alternative modalities which can reach out up to the marginalized learner. Yet, there are those who sit in their comfort zones and wait for manna from heaven. That is probably the reason why critiques on teachers being paid for doing nothing surfaced.

Alongside the governmental efforts in the delivery of service in education to the remotest areas shall include modalities apt for the indigenous culture, traditions, and more. They should achieve the national goals of maximizing the fullest potentials of learners through the utilization of possible materials, pedagogical strategies, and alternative modalities.  

The DepEd gave ample time to the schools to prepare for the new set of modalities. But there is also a culture a top-bottom mentality of many. The waiting can sometimes be excruciating since there are educators who are pro-active. They want to be prepared for the impending battle ahead. But then, there are also those who wait fro a messiah to save them from their distress.

Increasing environmental complexity and ambiguity require organizations to rely on their members' proactive behaviors to deal with potential chaotic occurrences surrounding the organizational functioning. Individuals respond these occurrences by displaying various proactive behavior forms to build predictability islands in ocean of uncertainty. In this context, principal proactivity is one of key determinants of effectiveness of schools functioning in complex and anarchic environments (Ankara, Balci, 2016).

Instead of remaining reactive, individuals’ performing proactive behaviors to deal with the opportunities and problems in internal and external environments of the school has become an important determinant of organizational effectiveness (Crant, 2000; Russell & Russell, 1992; Frese & Fay, 2001).

On the hands of educators lies the hope of nurturing something worth the while to the learners even in these trying times.