School will never be the same

Emily A. Zapata

During the past years, national disasters had disrupted classes in school. However, compared to these typhoons and earthquakes, there is nothing more severe than COVID19, and its impacts on education cannot be overstated. Last March of this year, all schools closed its doors for the safety of the employees and students. Every major exam: entrance tests and final examinations has been cancelled or postponed, and even gradations were put on hold.

The new proposed method of teaching has gone digital. Students no longer sit in classrooms, and they no longer show learning and growth to their peers and teachers. Classroom management and social atmosphere of students are no longer in the main problem of teachers. The upcoming academic year is a test of mass remote learning and teaching.

The most extreme effect might be physical. The classroom as we know it does not exist for the duration of this pandemic. Lots of schools are using Zoom or other video conferencing applications to stimulate the old familiar environment. But online calls are different from a traditional in-person class. Nearly every aspect of the classroom is different online especially the noise levels since teachers and students can easily mute each other or select whom they wish to hear or speak to.

As majority are forced to adapt to the digital world, more and more teachers will also embrace its strengths, from easily accessible lectures, to more diverse demonstration of skill, to much more intimate and immediate one-to-one teaching. The digital world is definitely an alternative to a physical classroom which most of us have to accept and adapt.

A number of features mark the end of a school year, from graduation rites to report cards and diplomas, but none more so than the final exams. For most schools, those exams have been cancelled. It is yet to determine if alternate systems of testing will be designed and implemented, if we will emerge with a different understanding as to the value of those t est s.

All in all, schools are fundamental to society so COVID-19 won’t be able to eliminate them. But this virus is so disruptive that every aspect of our experience in school has been transformed, more or less against our will. Those who have protested over the years for change are going to see it happen. In fact, it’s already happening, and school will never be the same again.

The author is Teacher

*** **

I at San Fernando Elementary School