School Opening Challenges

                                       (photo: UNESCO)

Uno may baja himoon nan mga maestro/maestra? There are comments from the parents that they shall be given the salary of the teachers since they are expected to facilitate the learning of their children during these times where the virus is persisting. Probably some of them forgot that the well-being and learning of their children start from home.

"Parental responsibility" - with respect to their minor children shall refer to the rights and duties of the parents as defined in Article 220 of Executive Order No. 209, as amended, otherwise known as the "Family Code of the Philippines.

In Article 220: The parents and those exercising parental authority shall have with the respect to their unemancipated children on wards the following rights and duties:

(1) To keep them in their company, to support, educate and instruct them by right precept and good example, and to provide for their upbringing in keeping with their means; (2) To give them love and affection, advice and counsel, companionship and understanding; (3) To provide them with moral and spiritual guidance, inculcate in them honesty, integrity, self-discipline, self-reliance, industry and thrift, stimulate their interest in civic affairs, and inspire in them compliance with the duties of citizenship.

It has been a practice among Filipinos to “leave” their responsibilities to the teachers and Day Care workers. Corporal punishment was even encouraged by some parents to the teachers when the kids do nasty things.

Research clearly links the quality of children’s first years with their future physical, cognitive, communicative, social and emotional functioning. Interaction and rich experience are keys. But in developing countries, families are too often without resources to provide the environment and stimulation that their young children need. In the Philippines, center-based early childhood development services are scarce and of uneven quality (childfun.org).

With the onslaught of the alternative learning modality of the Department of Education, parents are expected to facilitate the learning of their children in their own capacities. The IATF prohibits the minors to go out and have face-to-face encounters with others that is why parental support is tantamount to the learning process during the pandemic.

Parental involvement is an essential factor in the development of the foundation in children’s education. In spite of this, many parents do not appear to be getting involved in their children’s education.

This lack of involvement may have a negative impact on student performance in and out of the classroom and ultimately affect their continuing educational development and success. Teachers need to play a major role in connecting to the larger school community.

The Learning Continuity Plan of the schools lists orientation of the parents on the alternative learning delivery modes for this school year. But with the varied profiles of the parents, an impending difficulty is at hand. There are those who will repel on the idea of being involved since for them, it will get along the way in finding for a living. Some of them will be out to work and how can their children expect support and guidance from those whose educational attainment are limited?

Wilichowski and Cobo (2020) said that averting the damage brought on by the corona virus (COVID-19) pandemic requires an aggressive education policy response, which involves: 1) coping during the crisis to reduce learning loss while schools are closed, 2) managing continuity of learning to promote learning recovery as schools reopen safely, and 3) using the crisis as an opportunity to improve and accelerate, making education systems stronger and more equitable than they were before.

The DepEd must provide actionable guidance for teachers. This should point to ways teachers can become content curators, and provide   recommendations so that they do not overwhelm pupils with excessive lectures, lessons plans, and homework. In the U.S., Uganda, Brazil, France, and Ethiopia, this guidance includes easy-to-implement ideas so that teachers can adapt the content from remote learning plans for their needs.

There must also be strong policies to allow the parents to have commitment on the learning of the children with the help of the local governments in providing learning and development to capacitate the facilitating skills of the parents.

As education systems emerge from this crisis, it is clear that a new chapter is waiting to be written with detailed medium- and long-term actions (e.g., increasing investments in remote learning, adopting blended models when schools partially reopen, or creating remedial e-courses), which can help educational systems build back stronger and become more equitable.

We will also learn from the things along the way when the new school year opens come August 24. Still, it is firm that education MUST continue. We cannot afford to have a generation of morons if we will allow the pandemic to create a learning gap.