Education: From Disruption to Recovery

Most governments around the world have temporarily closed educational institutions in an attempt to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

These nationwide closures are impacting over 60% of the world’s student population. Several other countries have implemented localized closures impacting millions of additional learners.

Investment in remote learning should both mitigate the immediate disruption caused by COVID-19 and establish approaches to develop more open and flexible education systems for the future

Some 1 billion students and youth across the planet are affected by school and university closures due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Global Education Coalition launched by UNESCO seeks to facilitate inclusive learning opportunities for children and youth during this period of sudden and unprecedented educational disruption.

Investment in remote learning should both mitigate the immediate disruption caused by COVID-19 and establish approaches to develop more open and flexible education systems for the future.

The Global Coalition members and prospective members are encouraged topledge for the protection of learners personal information, privacy and security.

The webinars address a range of topics with a view to:

?maintaining the continuity of learning, especially for underprivileged children and youth; and

?ensuring all students return to school as they reopen

Education Sector’s issue notes cover key topics related to the COVID-19 education response. They provide evidence of good practices, practical tips and links to important reference to mitigate the short- and longer-term impact of school closures.

National learning platforms and tools to be used as educational resources for teachers and students were being offered but still with the use of the internet connection. Department of Education also aims to provide radio and television station to provide education and to promote ethical, moral and civic values within society.

Distance learning solutions.

The list of educational applications, platforms and resources below aim to help parents, teachers, schools and school administrators facilitate student learning and provide social care and interaction during periods of school closure. Most of the solutions curated are free and many cater to multiple languages. They tend to have a wide reach, a strong user-base and evidence of impact. They are categorized based on distance learning needs, but most of them offer functionalities across multiple categories. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/ educationresponse

Philippines, in response to the continuity of its education amid COVID 19 Save the Children Philippines is supporting the Department of Education (DepEd) to use adaptive learning methods to ensure continuity of education, and protection of learners from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Atty. Alberto Muyot, Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children Philippines calls for the public’s support, especially the education sector, to the training of teachers and non-teaching personnel to handle new learning methods for the smooth implementation of DepEd’s adaptive systems, and address the emerging needs of learners including low numeracy and literacy skills as cited by the 2018 results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

“As a non-negotiable basic human right, children should have continued access to education, even in times of emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Muyot.

“But we must always remember that children’s safety is paramount and make sure that they have a safe and inclusive learning environment,” added Muyot.

Save the Children Philippines has been working closely with the DepEd, together with teachers, and education stakeholders, for the implementation of its Learning Continuity Plan and COVID-19 Response Plans to ensure continued learning and utmost safety of the students, including the marginalized groups of children such as those with disabilities, children of indigenous families, those living in hard-to-reach areas, and out of school children and youth.

For many children, school is a safe haven and protective environment. However, the COVID-19 pandemic is shifting children’s learning from school to home setting.

To ensure that children’s right to learn is supported even on a household setting, Sierra Paraan, Basic Education Advisor of Save the Children Philippines emphasized the importance of providing support to parents, caregivers, and elder siblings in the effective implementation of adaptive learning methods.

“Educators such as parents and caregivers should have the capacity and sufficient support so they can effectively deliver new learning methods which must be gender-sensitive, inclusive, and should integrate psychosocial and socioemotional support for learners during the pandemic,” said Paraan.

Meanwhile, DepEd has mandated schools to decide on the use of learning methods depending on the situation in areas where schools are located.

Save the Children Philippines believes that the COVID-19 pandemic should not be a hindrance in providing quality education and a better future for our children.

We must make a concerted effort to make sure that children are not deprived of their basic right to learn and to be protected at the same time. https:// reliefweb.int/ report/ philippines/ save-children-philippines-supports-deped-adaptive-learning-methods-children-youth.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our country’s school system. To ensure the safety of both teachers and students, distance learning will be the “new normal” this coming school year.

The proper implementation of this “new normal” system rests on the shoulders of school leaders. It is the school leaders’responsibility to ensure the health and wellness of their teachers and personnel, and to ascertain that students are learning despite the di st ance.

Sadly, only a few of our school leaders have training and support for their new roles. Still, many school leaders give their best to perform their new duties.

When classes resume this August, school leaders - mostly principals, need to be in the front line in providing guidance and support to their students and their families as they study at home.

Moreover, school leaders know the needs of their communities well, so they are the best persons that can effectively distribute the available resources to those who need them.

School leaders carry heavier responsibilities during this time of crisis, thus, they need all the support they could get from their peers, parents, and the community. Professional development programs, even those conducted online, is crucial for school leaders, so they can perform their added responsibilities.

CHARMAINE E. DELOS TRINOS

Project planning refers to everything you do to set up your project for success. It’s the process you go through to establish the steps required to define your project objectives, clarify the scope of what needs to be done and develop the task list to do it.

Essentially, project planning involves establishing the scope, aims and objectives of a project, the way in which the project will be performed, the roles and responsibilities of those involved and the time and cost estimates.

It basically answers the questions what, how, who, when and how much.

It can also be defined as the process of devising and maintaining a workable scheme to accomplish the business or service need that the project was undertaken to ad d r ess.

Project planning plays an essential role in helping guide stakeholders, sponsors, teams, and the project manager through other project phases.

Planning is needed to identify desired goals, reduce risks, avoid missed deadlines, and ultimately deliver the agreed product, service or result.

Without careful planning, project performance is almost certainly guaranteed to suffer.

Specifically, the following are the importance of project planning:

(a)Project Planning identifies and reduces potential risks.

Proper planning allows teams to ensure that risks can be mitigated against and that smaller tasks roll-up into milestones that meet with the larger goals of the project, reducing potential risks.

(b)Project Planning reduces or avoid failure.

Project Planning is the second phase of project management. This is where you cross the T's and dot the I's.

It's where the scope of the project is laid out, where the timeline, costs, deliverables and the details are ironed out.

This is where expectations are set and assumptions are identified.

Without this vital step, it is almost certain things will fall through the cracks and a project team is bound to miss crucial details, deadlines and eventually d el i ver abl es.

Furthermore, to be able to ensure the effectiveness of project planning, several tools can be used to monitor and evaluate every project plan being implemented.

The following are the commonly used tools for project planning and management:

Financial Tools

Cause and Effect Charts

Gannt Chart

Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

Problem Tree Analysis

SWOT Analysis

Event Chain Diagrams

Force Field Analysis

Logical Framework Analysis (LFA)