Finding a way back

Adapting to distance learning has posed tremendous challenges for schools, teachers, students and their families. this is true for all levels of education, as well as all socioeconomic levels.

With the impending start of a new school year, some lawmakers and schools are now demanding more aggressively that at least some schools in virus-free zones be allowed to reopen.

The government faces a serious dilemma on how to get students and teachers back into schools while also keeping them safe, especially since the spread of the new highly infectious Covid variants seem to be overtaking its vaccination program.

President Duterte had approved the start of face-to-face classes in certain areas in January but withdrew approval over concerns on the emergence of these Covid variants.

He, however, still approved the holding of limited face-to-face classes in schools offering courses on medicine and allied health sciences located in areas under general community quarantine and MGCQ.

The Senate recently adopted a resolution recommending the resumption of face-to-face classes and the pilot testing of localized limited physical classes.

The Department of Education has identified several schools that may be viable for face-to-face classes, although it did not name the exact locations of these schools.

Based on Deped’s presentation during a recent Senate hearing, a maximum of 50 schools per region would be allowed to participate in the pilot run.

Indeed, even if these schools in low-risk areas and communities can serve only a fraction of the nation’s student population, reopening them, even on a trial basis, may be well worth the effort.

The Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (Cocopea) was recently quoted in news reports as saying a return to face-to-face classes will improve students’ access to education and address the social and mental problems brought about by over a year of Covid restrictions.

School closures, Cocopea noted, have disrupted students’ mental and social health and overall learning gains, citing data indicating a student retains only around 70 percent of what had been learned online.

Indeed, never before have so many of our children been learning from home and out of their physical schools. The pandemic-forced home schooling has certainly disrupted and upended their lives.

Even those who can well afford to have gadgets and good Internet access know all about the travails of being glued to computers and smartphone screens as teachers went all-virtual on lectures, tests, tutorials and other schoolwork.

Sitting through Zoom meetings and webinars repeatedly is already exhausting for most adults, what more for young and not-so-young kids who have to go through it for several classes every day—and even after their classes, to confer with classmates and complete their requirements.

As the year went by, for many of our students, mild headaches have turned into migraines from too much screen staring. And in the end, lectures, no matter how interactive, still pale in comparison to education earned through face-to-face classes and inside campuses.

More harried, of course, are the teachers and students who have had to cope with online learning while in difficult living situations: Some because of sick family members, from Covid or other diseases; some because of family members who lost jobs and livelihoods; some because they worry about household members who are essential workers, hence constantly exposed to the virus.

The socioeconomic divisions certainly came to the forefront. Coping with distance learning is particularly difficult for poorer households whose kids have to deal with the lack of Internet access, smartphones, tablets, laptops and other financial hindrances. These kids even struggle to find spaces in their homes to learn. The stories of students climbing trees and travelling outside their homes just to get a cell signal strong enough to complete their assignments are no exaggeration.

Many of their parents, who may have only an elementary school education themselves, are also unprepared for the home tutoring that the Deped modules require.

Online education was something borne out of necessity. It was certainly better than stopping school altogether. Being somewhat still connected to their schools and campus lives surely could well have been a welcome distraction from the pandemic for many students.

But it has been well over a year. It is time for both the private and public sector to seriously consider how to make face-to-face classes viable again even amid this pandemic, for the mental, emotional and academic well-being of our children.