Kaarang ini na modules! This is just one of the lines we overhear from TV and on the social media sites as the opening of classes took place on October 5 of this year.
Over 24 million elementary and
high school students start their classes Monday after four months of delay due
to the continuing threat of COVID-19 that has so far infected more than 322,000
people in the country. But unlike in previous years, campuses remain closed,
following President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive to suspend face-to-face classes
until a vaccine against the new coronavirus becomes available. Instead,
students will be learning from their homes through a mix of modular learning,
online learning, and television and radio broadcasts (philstar.com).
Meanwhile, Members of the
Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) held a sunrise protest at Mendiola in
Manila on Monday, the first day of classes for school year 2020-2021, according
to Super Radyo dzBB reporter Isa Avendaño-Umali. ACT Philippines secretary
general Raymond Basilio said basic needs for blended learning such as printed
modules were still not yet in place a day before classes were to start
(gmanetwork.com).
Despite the protests of ACT and
some parents, DepEd successfully opened School Year 2020-2021. Claiming victory
over the coronavirus pandemic that forced students and teachers to shift to
distance learning, Department of Education Secretary Leonor Briones formally
declared Monday the start of the new academic year.
“Today, we celebrate a great
victory. We declare our victory over COVID-19, the destroyer of our lives, the
destroyer of our economy and our way of life and society. But we will not allow
COVID-19 to destroy our children's education and their future,” Briones said
(Cabico, 2020).
As the day progressed, pictures
of teachers on top of school buildings looking for internet signal were shown;
one was featured swimming a river to allegedly deliver modules to the other side
and many situations which could oftentimes degrade the teaching profession. Of
course, we understand human interest stories but when these stories are induced
for gimmickry that is already another story.
With the importance of managerial
skills which school heads are expected to acquire, seeing teachers on top of
the roof looking for internet signals is a question of management. Why is it
that the school head was not able to link with the stakeholders for internet
connectivity? Seeing a teacher swimming in his uniform with the unwrapped
modules on his hands, a viewer can question the integrity of the story and the
storyteller itself. The one who filmed it was riding a boat while the teacher
swam?
Education is a serious matter. Educators
must have a progressive mindset with the intentions to serve not to be served. The
professional educator, in accepting his or her position of public trust,
measures success not only by the progress of each student toward realization of
his or her personal potential, but also as a citizen of the greater community
of the republic.
On the other side, there are
parents who are complaining about the modular delivery modality. The question
to come up in this writers mind is: Can they propose a better modality which
allows the learners to learn? If we stop educating the young as what others are
proposing, how will we deal with learning gaps?
Generally speaking, learning gap
refers to the relative performance of individual students—i.e., the disparity
between what a student has actually learned and what he or she is expected to
learn at a particular age or year level. One of the more consequential features
of learning gaps is their tendency, if left unaddressed, to build up over time
and become more severe, which can increase the chances that a student will
struggle academically (fsdeu.com.au).
Why do learning gaps form? In
general, learning gaps are compounding, which can be troublesome for students
beginning to fall behind. But, it's not always easy to identify. As learning is
based on building blocks, students are always challenged to expand on topics
over time and apply them to new concepts as they progress. Learning that is
achieved at one grade level serves as the foundation on which the understanding
of more complex ideas and concepts is built.
According to tutordoctor.com, this learning structure grows throughout a
student's academic career, with new skills developing from the skills the
student has already mastered. Not every student learns at the same pace, though
– which is why what starts out as a small learning gap can eventually become a
more serious problem.
Also, the modular delivery
modality will allow the learners to value reading. Since they do not have anything
to do but peruse the materials. This will eventually turn their minds to be
critical-thinkers. Allowing the mind to dwell into an analytical state through
reading hones mental capacities and skills.
Reading improves vocabulary,
organizational skills, and the ability to read, comprehend, and analyze text.
... Moreover, literature can help students develop the critical-thinking skills
many employers think are lacking in today's college graduates before they even
get to college (Maxcer, 2015).
Whatever our perceptions are, we
still have this collective belief that education is very important whatever
delivery it may be given.
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