Learning is Essential, Education must Continue

Sherilynne N. Mendoza

Learning is lifelong process. This supports DepEd’s advocacy that education must because learners must never stop acquiring new concepts and skills.

In this time of global health crisis brought about by this COVID-19 pandemic, most schools have been forced to close for quite some time and learners were advised to stay at home for their safety, the crisis on education is verge of taking effect. Various questions, assumptions and even complains have been raised by people from all walks of life, most especially, the parents. Probably, they are particularly concerned with the how of schooling at this point of time. Manty have been very vocal to request the government for the postponement of the school opening since they believe that even by August, going to school is not yet safe. For a couple of months now, the Department of Education, through their press releases and official Facebook page, has been presenting and explaining various learning modalities that may most probably be employed in this special health emergency situation. Some of them include; modular learning, Television learning, blended learning and online learning, all of which are under distant learning or distant education. These various modalities may be employed in specific areas depending on their situations.

In my point of view, I am speaking as a parent, I could see and undrstand DepEd’s wisdom and sincerity to be able to still serve Filipino learners in spite of the pandemic. The department has been searching and assessing effective and safe ways on how to deliver education to all its clienteles to make our learners learn and continue to progress. That even without the usual face-to-face learning modality, children will learn a lot of information and acquire various skills and competencies. As I understand the suggested learning modalities under distant learning have been proven and tested in other countries and were found to have various degrees of efficiency. With the positive results these modalities have shown, they may be worth to be tried in some areas where they may be applicable. As an advocate of continuous learning and one who had undergone formal education, I am one with DepEd in believing that education must be constantly delivered to all types of learners in various modalities that may fit their situation and the nature of the learners.

Lastly, I would like to reiterate what has been given emphasis by DepEd. “Learning must never stop! It must continue in other ways depending on the learners and their situations. As presented, “distance Learning” may be one of the better options.” It may matter how education will be delivered to the learners, but, the more important concerns are, will it be given to the Filipino learners and when will it be given? The most probable and appropriate answer in my opinion is YES and NOW because learning as a lifelong process must continue so as to better prepare our youth for the future. Remember, everyone has the essential right to be educated and this must never be compromised or taken for granted. Learners must continue to learn; therefore, education must continue in other appropriate ways. There are various ways which are safer and effective, all we need is pick the perfect one that would fit our situation, without compromising the health of our learners.

contniue

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The author is Administrative Assistant III at City Schools Division of San Fernando (P)