Teaching and Learning amid the Covid -19 Pandemic

The author is Teacher II at San Matias Elementary School Cristina L. Cordova

TO protect the health of learners and educators, teaching had to be performed remotely with the use of modular and digital platforms last school year. It will be the same this school year, with schools still closed and face-to-face classes still suspended. Despite this, delivery of education in the country will still continue under the health protocols set by the government, the Department of Health and the World Health Organization. Department of Education officials said the Basic Education - Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP) is the agency’s major response and commitment in protecting the health, safety, and well-being of learners, teachers, and personnel. The BE-LCP aims to provide quality distance learning with the use of self-learning modules in digital and printed form, radio, television, and the internet. Teachers have been trained to be teacher-broadcasters to deliver lessons through the DepEd TV. To assist more learners and teachers in distance learning amid the pandemic, the DepEd also upgraded its DepEd Commons which is an online learning platform for both public and private schools. Officials said the department was able to double the number of learners that can access the platform at the same time with the help of the Department of Information and Communications Technology and National Telecommunications Commission. The Department is also hopeful to further transform Philippine education in response to the changing world with the drastic changes in education brought by the pandemic. Education is not going to be the same as education in the past, as the changes have already started. The Department already recognizes the signals, and the increased role of technology and science. There is a need to encourage not only teachers but learners to not only specialize and memorize, but to analyze, be objective, break a problem apart and come up with a solution. This is the kind of education that the DepEd wants, according to officials.