Education in the New Normal
Unpredicted except through fiction, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed everyday life, caused wide-scale illness and death, and provoked preventive measures like social distancing, confinement, and school closures. Formal education has come to a sudden halt, not just in the Philippines but also in every country of the world.
To ensure the continuity of education across the country, the education sector has been forced to quickly adapt to new ways of doing things. COVID-19 has made it impossible to hold the traditional face-to-face classes without risking the health of students and teachers, hence a new mode of learning was implemented by the Department of Education.
Distance learning is the safest way to continue education in the midst of this global pandemic. With the ever-advancing world of technology, it would be futile to not use it to our advantage, hence the Department of Education introduced “blended learning”, which is a combination of both online and offline learning methodologies with the use of technology. Classes are held via a video calling app such as Zoom, while lessons and assignments are provided to the students.
However, since not all students are able to connect to the internet or have the proper devices to do so, the sector also introduced the “Modular Distance Learning”, which uses Self-Learning Modules based on the most essential learning competencies provided by the Department of Education. Based on data gathered by the department, 8.8 million out of 22.2 million enrollees or about 39.6% of total respondents preferred modular distance learning for the upcoming school year. Meanwhile, 3.9 million enrollees (17.6%) were partial to blended learning, 3.8 million (17.1%) preferred online learning, and 14 million and 900,000 enrollees preferred TV-based and radio-based learning, respectively.
Distance learning was the most reasonable and safest mode of learning if we wish to continue the learning of students during these times. Given the situation of the country and the sudden change of things, learning in the new normal would be a challenge for the teachers, students, and even parents. During these crucial times, the goal of distance learning is to keep students engaged academically to retain what they have learned.
The teachers and administrators are all doing what they can do to continue the education of students even in these trying times. While it is true that the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the education drastically and has brought a paradigm shift in teaching and learning methodologies, the whole world is also starting to stand up on its feet to return everything back to normal, not just in the sense of education but to all sectors.
Ruben G. Verdida
Principal
Carmen Elementary School