Lens of Education in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Ador L. Isip

Under the new normal, the condition poses a particular obstacle to the decisionmaking process of each educational manager. Some concerns have emerged for the day after, that is, what changes need to be made, the innovations to be made in the situation, and the meaning of the fundamental aspects of teaching and learning in traditional education systems and institutions in the light of disturbances to education.

Learners, employees, and non-teaching staff should all be expected to wear face masks and to keep physical space between themselves while going to classes. Also, basic hygiene procedures, hygiene measures, and other precautionary steps, such as contact monitoring, foot bathing, ventilation, and daily hand washing, would be strictly observed.

Schools are faced with the task of reducing the student-teacher ratio, which would lead to issues such as shortage of classrooms and other physical resources, lack of teachers, and scarcity of learning resources. However, public health is a problem. Any learning institution must implement certain steps and regulations on the physical distance and wear of face masks.

The education system is one of the most threatened by the disease outbreak of COVID19. In the Philippines, where there are already increasing contaminants of COVID-19, some problems and concerns have been raised, but there are also a variety of approaches to the new norm. Schools at all levels must then answer these issues and closely analyze the preparations and processes for introducing the new requirement. Collaborative work is perhaps the most essential thing in these tough days.

We should continue to shape the COVID-19 education, to progress towards a new norm. Possibility and obstacles should be understood and given significant consideration. The question here is how to plan and provide educational opportunities in extraordinary times, such as the COVID-19 deadly virus, and to what degree we are prepared to handle another catastrophe.

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The author is from Burot Integrated School, Burot, Tarlac City