The way students are educated was changed because of the coronavirus pandemic. It has driven millions of students into temporary “homeschooling”.
The Department of Education is not quite armed with this kind of situation, thus, not only the learners will bear the outcome of this but the whole institution as well. Not to mention that the current School Calendar vis a vis with the number of school days was not delivered through formal classroom instruction. In effect learners and parents as well felt a shortage in terms of completing the competencies required. The teachers as well were aghast with the turn of events since they are the ones who are dutifully obliged to deliver these competencies to the learners. All in all the current school year is in dilemma with regards to the delivery of learning.
Meanwhile, schools are turning to creative measures to keep classes running outside the classroom by means of an online learning platform. As long as the learners have computers and an online connection, it does not matter in which part of the world they are. Students can get information from anywhere and at any given time. Besides, distance is now not a obstruction to learning, whether scholastic or professional. Online learning permits them to study at their own pace, whether they are students, active adults, or employees. Not only are students able to start their online learning promptly, but they are moreover able to see immediate results; whether self-paced or instructor-led. It too gives a variety of ways to offer constructive feedback to the learners.
Be that as it may, online learning cannot ensure student access to quality instruction. To start with, not all understudies have gadgets and internet connection, for this reason, a few of them seems not to comply effectively with the subject’s requirements and topics. Moreover, it will not be simple for all of the learners to feel comfortable when taking part in online discourses and engaging more effectively with their online instructors or their virtual classmates. In expansion to this, no matter how natural it appears to make connections behind computer screens, a virtual environment is just not human – nothing can supplant physical contact. By using a computer or a tablet all the time can cause poor vision, strain injuries, and other physical issues. Moreover, online learning has numerous confinements, just as how DepEd Commons is neither complete nor perfect. It still has many impediments: contents are not however that many, assessment and ranking have not however been included, separate channels for instructors, guardians, students, and officials have not yet been built up. As for teachers, it would be an incredible challenge for them to monitor and evaluate learners’ study habits and progress in this time of crisis. In spite of the truth that students were given a lecture or handouts for them to study, it is difficult to know for the teachers whether or not the children did what they were entrusted to do.
Hence, the collaborative effort of all instructors, guardians, and students to access quality education is in great need in this kind of circumstance wherein all individuals are encountering the reality of the new normal.
By: Ms. Johanna V. Consunji | Teacher III | Cataning Elementary School | Balanga City, Bataan
