Prepping for school
ARE we ready to teach our children?
The recent announcement that President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the recommendation of the Department of Education (DepEd) to move the start of basic education classes for school year 2020-2021 from this month to Oct. 5, 2020 is welcomed by many.
As reported by SunStar Philippine’s Marites VillamorIlano on Aug. 14, DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones said that President Duterte based his decision on the agency’s assessment of the constraints created by the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) status on learners in the National Capital Region and Calabarzon, numbering two million and four million, respectively, representing “more than a fourth of the 23 million K-to-12 (kindergarten to Grade 12) enrollees in both public and private schools for the incoming school year),” reported SunStar.
Calls for deferring the school opening have questioned the preparedness of teachers for the non-traditional modular, digital and educational radio/ television approaches, which learning under the pandemic entails.
Yet in the midst of the pandemic, teachers are only half of the mentors having an impact on learners. As youths relocate from the institutional setting of the campus to the more personal and intimate setting of home, parents are the other half at the frontlines of learning.
How will learners adjust to studying with their parents? For learners in the lower years, the apprehensions are felt more keenly by their parents or guardians. Social media posts from parents attending the orientations and briefings initiated by schools to orient families to the new modes of learning raise uncertainties whether parents or guardians can meet the demands of homebased learning during the pandemic.
The imperative to work outside home or find employment for those who were laid off during the community quarantines is complicated by the demands of tutoring a young learner at home. Either from lack of formal schooling, prior experiences or will power, some parents may perceive that they are the least competent to assist their children in their studies.
Realizing that fellow parents may lack the time, skills and willingness to guide learners, some parents whose children are in the same class use the social media to form an online community to support their children and fellow parents by exchanging notes on their children’s school work, learning from common experiences, sharing expertise and keeping up with resources that aid their children’s learning during the pandemic.
Middle-class values prioritizing academics as a stepping stone for success in later stages can ease the transition of learners born to these families. Stakeholders should consider how to reach out and assist learners whose parents are working outside of home; are going solo and function as the breadwinner; or lack the educational background and resources to guide their children’s studies.
With students in the higher years, cognitive challenges are replaced by affective ones. Many adolescent learners thrive in the company of their peers. Having parents nearby while they study at home may prove to be more of a distraction than a boost.
In families with a history of domestic abuse, the home will be the worst possible environment for learning.
Even after providing the material advantages afforded by the bourgeois, parents still have to be involved with their children. The distractions and dangers of the internet, academic pressures, and other psychological adjustments to staying home and curtailing one’s socialization may affect a young person in ways that require an adult’s perspective and counselling.
While the pandemic has changed learning in drastic ways, some of these changes have always been within the scope of parenting. So, parents and guardians: are we ready for classes to start?---Sunnex