Education in the “new normal”

Timothy Duane B. Gonzales

How would the world be in the “new normal”. Specifically, how would the education scene be? As a Department of Education (DEPED) employee myself, it came no shock when the Department opted to prolong the start of classes for this school year. DEPED announced that the classes for this school year would begin in the latter weeks of August, 2020 as opposed to the usual start of classes which happens on the month of July of each year, respectively. However, it is also mentioned that classes may start earlier under the condition that there will not be any physical classes conducted during sure times. In other words, students are not required to physically appear before their teachers at their schools. This condition seems impractical and highly unlikely to prove effective but only time will tell if such efforts by the Department would prove otherwise.

To address such issues, DEPED brought about a program that would allow students to home-school. Classes would be conducted online through the use of the internet, computers and other digital devices that would aid in students’ learning.

But even then, such efforts by the Department still come with its own set of problems. We have to take into consideration that the Philippines, being a third world country, still suffer from a lot of impracticalities regarding the modernization of not only the learning of students but also the individual capabilities of each student. We have to be aware of the fact that a lot of households in the country still do not have a stable source of electricity, let alone internet connectivity and digital devices such as computers and the likes.

Simply put, a lot of families are considered to not have any means to engage their children into online schooling.

This is the reality that we have now. It is a problem that the Department of Education yet again has to find a solution for.

--oOo-

The author is Administrative Assistant

II at Schools Division Office of Pampanga