Education is a basic human right, but above all it is key to the development of countries. The COVID-19 has resulted in schools shut all across the world. Globally, over 1.2 billion children are out of the classroom.
According to UNICEF (2021),together with four other countries, the Philippines has kept its schools closed nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic. The Philippines is one of the five countries in the world that have not started in-person classes since the pandemic began, affecting the right to learn of more than 27 million Filipino students. “The first day of school is a landmark moment in a child’s life—setting them off on a life-changing path of personal learning and growth. Most of us can remember countless minor details—what clothes we wore, our teacher’s name, who we sat next to. But for millions of children, that important day has been indefinitely postponed,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
When children cannot go to school, we know that the future is uncertain. However, even when they do attend school, sometimes there are insufficient guarantees that they will be able to acquire the educational skills demanded by 21st century society.
With this sudden shift away from the classroom in many parts of the globe, education has changed dramatically, with the distinctive rise of e-learning, whereby teaching is undertaken remotely and on digital platforms.In response to significant demand, many online learning platforms are offering free access to their services. Research suggests that online learning has been shown to increase retention of information, and take less time. some are wondering whether the adoption of online learning will continue to persist post-pandemic, and how such a shift would impact the worldwide education.
Everyone in the Department of Education and CHED, from the operations and support service units, to administrators and teachers, adjusted to work-from-home arrangements. From the confines of their homes, teachers and administrators were put to the task of revising and adapting course syllabi and requirements as they shifted to alternative or remote teaching modalities, both synchronous and asynchronous. Where students and teachers had access to electronic devices and reliable Internet connections, learning managements systems such as Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, and applications like Google Hangouts, Zoom and Skype, were used. But where students had limited access to computers or unreliable access to the Internet, teachers and students used smartphones to exchange messages, notes and materials, through text messaging, e-mail, Facebook Messenger, and Twitter. It is a very challenging task for everyone , both for teachers and students. The pandemic and the extended school closures have changed the role of teachers and most of them were not prepared for such change; however Filipinos still proved their flexibility, adapatability and resiliency in this kind of crisis.
By: Mayette G. Garcia | Teacher III | BNHS
