Education at the Far Flung Area Amid the Pandemic
COVID-19 has become a global health crisis. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020, and a pandemic on March 11, 2020. To curb the spread of COVID-19, most governments have opted to employ quarantine protocols and temporarily shut down their educational institutions. As a consequence, more than a billion learners have been affected worldwide. Among this number are over 28 million Filipino learners across academic levels who have to stay at home and comply with the Philippine government’s quarantine measures (UNESCO, 2020).
In response to the pandemic, the Department of Education (DepEd) ensured that learning must continue. As part of the Philippines’ short and long-term strategies, Secretary Briones introduced the BE-LCP as a guideline for the department on how to deliver education in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring the health, safety, and welfare of all learners, teachers, and personnel of DepEd.
Modular learning is the “backbone” of the DepEd’s distance learning program as access to technology remains a problem for most students. Other modes of learning such as online, and TV and radio broadcasts would supplement the modules (Magsambol, 2020).
Teachers in remote areas are struggling to deliver modules to their students as the country transitions into a blended learning system amid the COVID-19 pandemic (Gaston, 2020).
According to Estela Cariño, director of the Department of Education’s office in the Cagayan Valley region, one of the major challenges experienced by the teacher, of course, would be the distance of the houses of these learners and the kind of road that they have to pass through, and some have to cross rivers (Bernardo, 2020).
Teachers have also encountered students with no parents to assist them in their studies or sometimes their parents can’t even read or write.
Teachers are not immune to the virus. They are also afraid of their wellbeing as well as for the health of their loved ones when they come home after home visitations to their learners. Despite these challenges, teachers will continue to educate the learners to the best of their ability. (Paid article)