Backbone

Mag-uno kaha sila inig sulig nila?… This query often comes to the mind when one sees innocent children doing things nonchalantly. Most learned adults also ask this question silently when they encounter children on the streets aimlessly. Teachers and educators will then wonder what happens to young people who will be deprived of education due to pressing situations like COVID-19.

National data from DepEd as of July 15, 2020, showed that the total number of enrollees for SY 2020-2021 has reached 20,220,507 nationwide for Kindergarten to Grade 12, including Alternative Learning System (ALS) and non-graded learners with disabilities. This is 72.7 percent of SY 2019-2020 enrollment turnout at 27.7 million.

The enrollment data also showed that 19,145,129 million learners have enrolled in public schools and 1,050,434 registered in private schools. This upcoming SY’s enrolment in public schools is 84.8% of last year and the registration in private schools is 24.3% of SY 2019-2020.

All of these learners will undergo distance learning since the government prohibits face-to-face schooling. And 80% of these learners will have the modular delivery where they will receive worksheets and modules to work on for the school days until the COVID-19 pandemic cease to threaten the world’s health status.

The statistics above are not just faceless entities. They are real people with families. They are young minds with needs, feelings and social responsibilities which will hone them to be the future leaders. But with depleting resources and the novel learning delivery mode that the school system has, what could be expected of the young?

Social interactions play important parts of development throughout childhood, and spending time with peers is typically part of that process. But child psychologists also mention that parents must not worry too much. Children tend to be resilient and adaptable, they said. There is much to be gained from interactions with parents, siblings and even pets. Time alone is valuable, too. And connection through technology, like hanging out or playing games through video chats, can fill in some of the blanks. Even without peer interaction for a while, kids can still develop socially and emotionally in ways that will prepare them to pursue real-world friendships when those can resume (Sohn, 2020).

Yet, we then remember those young learners who are financially-challenged. What about those children who have dysfunctional families? What can their psychological foundations be? What about the facilitation of their learning once distance education starts? Who will act as learning facilitators in a topsy-turvy environment?

In the ideal envisioned distance learning approach, parents would have an active role. They would facilitate and guide their children through the modular lessons that would be sent to students undergoing remote learning. However, this loomed as a big challenge to students who do not have anyone to facilitate learning at home.

"There are parents who are "no-read, no-write." They are sending their children to school because they don’t want their children to be like them. Who would teach the students now at home? This kind of modular learning is really difficult. Not all parents are capable of guiding their children," said a public elementary school teacher in Laguna, in a previous interview with Rappler.

It can be gleaned that the Philippines is allocating a lot of funds for education as reflected in the GAA (General Appropriations Act). The education sector got P654.77 billion, a combined allocation from the DepEd and its attached agencies (P521.35 billion), the State Universities and Colleges (P73.72 billion), and the Commission on Higher Education (P46.73 billion). This is for fiscal year 2020.

But how can the billions of pesos be translated into LEARNING?

With the onslaught of the novel corona virus, the government is concentrating on the pressing health issue. Thus, the decision to have distance learning was made. What will become of the struggling population of young learners who do not have the psycho-social readiness?

Rarkryan P. Angdhiri (2020) posits: As reported by students who participated in the dry run of modular learning, this was confusing to adjust to as they had not been prepared through simulations or practices beforehand. Students reported the home-learning program to be even more stressful than regular classrooms. Some also say that the workload of remote classes is larger than that of regular classes. The general consensus is that home-learning programs — although highly beneficial and a good alternative to school as schools are closed — still require some getting used to by students, as it is a novel concept and not many are experienced with them.

There are impending problems that the teachers and school administrators will be facing once the school year opens on October 5, 2020. They can only prepare their armors and steadfast belief that competence and hard work can make things happen.

We were unprepared with what the virus sent to the world. We can only hope that our resilience as a people will allow us to adjust in the somewhat cliché “new normal”.

Still, we must continue putting up a strong fight to let the children learn since education is the backbone of nation building.

The Power of Being Prepared

                                       (photo: sloanreview.mit.edu)

Di pa daw sila kun preparado… The Philippine Star reported on August 5, 2020 that the Quezon City Public School Teachers Association during the online conference revealed that they have not yet received the necessary modules for distance learning from the DepEd. According to QCPTA president Kristhean Navales, the department has so far only released guidelines on how to print the modules once they are available. He added that these guidelines were released just a few days ago, mere weeks before classes are set to resume.

Navales said he is unaware of whether DepEd is currently printing modules and questioned the department's ability to have them ready by August 24.  

This can be considered as the opposite of pro-active actions by educational leaders in the field. There are some who wait for top-down directives for them to act. The proverbial manna from heaven is often on the mentality of the majority. When this happens, chaos and confusion thrive inside organizations.

R.A. 9155 clearly says that the State shall encourage local initiatives for improving the quality of basic education. The State shall ensure that the values, needs and aspirations of a school community are reflected in the program of education for the children, out-of-school youth and adult learners. Schools and learning centers shall be empowered to make decisions on what is best for the learners they serve.

The school head, who may be assisted by an assistant school head, shall be both an instructional leader and administrative manager. The school head shall form a team with the school teachers/learning facilitators for delivery of quality educational programs, projects and services, the Act continues.

School leaders across the country are grappling with an array of decisions forced on them by the COVID-19 pandemic. How do we use our resources to protect children and keep education going? Once the overarching decisions are made, leaders, including those further down the command chain, will have a myriad of additional choices to make. Thus, the thrust to create a viable Learning Continuity Plan (LCP) was encouraged.

To underscore the case, school leaders are empowered to lead the schools based on the stringent plans created. But due to the fact that most were unprepared of the pandemic’s onslaught, lots were empty-handed. There were even some who copied the plans of others not realizing that the profile of the schools they are managing is different from those they duplicated.

Mathew Lynch (2020) mentions that the antithesis of proactive is reactive, which means people react to the world around them instead of taking steps to affect the outcomes positively. Proactive educational leaders have a do-it-themselves mindset and approach problematic situations with enthusiasm. If you want to affect your life and the lives around you positively, start by learning to control situations, instead of waiting for things to happen.

To become a proactive leader, the first thing that one needs to do is to be able to find and isolate potential issues before they become full-fledged problems. Then the leader can come up with a solution for solving the issue before it actually becomes widely known. The process of solving problems before they begin is not easy to do. It takes a total understanding of the organization and the forces and pressures that surround it. Then and only then can the education leaders begin to predict potential issues and landmines with great accuracy.

The pandemic must not topple down the managerial, leadership and creative processes of leaders who took oath to serve the people in educating the young. Of course, it is but normal to feel anxiety and fear… but public service must go on. There is a need to find ways to let the delivery of education continue.

Responses to the pandemic within the international education community have varied from heroic to problematic, as educators, leaders, administrators and education policy workers navigate shifting information, priorities, resources, and political and economic concerns. As education leaders have responded to the current crisis, many challenges and obstacles to providing essential educational services have emerged.

Additionally, according to frontiersin.org, questions have been raised about whether and how students and schools can meet education policy expectations, how schools can provide adequate support for students, particularly those with special educational and mental health needs, and how education leaders, including, but not limited to: principals, head teachers, superintendents, teacher leaders and so on can collaborate and coordinate with government, non-profit and other stakeholders to meet student needs.

Exhausting our capacities and allowing the community to help us can make things happen. There are resources in our ecology. Paired with proactive actions and the collaboration that must be present, we can be prepared enough in allowing the learners to have an alternative way of educating themselves. If we continue to dwell on WE CAN’T, there is really a tendency that the WE CAN action will be vague.