The outbreak of COVID – 19 paralyzed a lot of aspects of society. It affects almost the entire world that resulted in problems like poverty, loss of jobs and closure of businesses. This put the world in a situation that needed to turn back the normal life of the people to a new different level.
Consequently, almost one hundred seven (107) countries had declared school closures by mid-March 2020 during the peak of the viral outbreak. School closures were based on evidence and assumptions that reduced social contact and exposure could stop or minimize the spread of the virus. School closures had affected the lives of the students and the teachers as well. School year 2019 to 2020 ended up having online classes with the students and teachers caught unprepared because not everyone has direct access to the internet or due to lack of learning modalities to offer if this kind of problem arises in unpredictable time.
In the Philippines, the educational sector launched the so-called “The New Normal in Education” as response to COVID-19 pandemic. This will eventually ease the problem of how children can still acquire education even though there is no physical contact between the teachers and the students. In the said “New Normal”, there will be a limited face-to-face contact and other learning modalities will be offered by the education leaders to the students. Based on the article published by The Manila Times (May, 2020) COVID-19 outbreak has affected nearly 27 million students, 1 million teachers and staff and the families of the learners. The Department of Education (DepEd) had decided to delay the opening of classes to further give ample time to all the education personnel, teachers and students to adopt the so-called new normal in education. The agency is offering schools various alternative learning methods such as online learning, modular, and blended learning. Until now, teachers are attending webinars and training workshops on how these new learning modalities will be effective in bringing education to remote places; however, slow internet connections, printing of learning materials, insufficient technological devices, and delivering and retrieving modules are the major problems in this new normal in education.
More so, one of the biggest challenges the country is now facing is the effectiveness of these learning modalities in the academic achievement of the students. Parental involvement and cooperation is being seen as necessary in the new normal of education. According to DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla, the cooperation and support coming from the parents or guardians will be very important as the agency embraces the “new normal in education.” Sevilla (2020) also stated that parents’ participation and involvement are indeed necessary in providing a conducive learning facility for the learners as well as the technology that will be used (Hernando-Malipot, 2020).Henceforth, parents play a major role in assisting and guiding their child/children in order to uplift their academic status under the new normal of educatio
By: Catherine L. Jongco| Master Teacher I | Bataan National High School | Balanga, Bataan
