March 29, 2024

As the new school year opens on Oct. 5, which coincides with the celebration of the World Teachers’ Day, the parents, who will be the home-based teachers, will be playing a more challenging role in the education of their children which entails everyone’s support.
With the new learning modality that the education sector has to adopt in this new normal brought about the threats of Covid-19, parents are now faced with heavier tasks to help deliver the instruction that the schools are mandated to provide to their children.
In the dry-run that our school conducted recently, I observed how challenging the role of parents are in teaching their children that they had to learn how to do productive multi-tasking, to manage their time wisely, and most importantly, to manage their stress as they seemed to have been placed in a strange world where all things are different that they have to cope with them.
During one of our information education campaigns in clustered sitios, there were parents who even asked if the class opening could be moved next year. They claimed with the dry-run alone, they felt like they were already exhausted that they could no longer do household chores since they had to attend to their kids all day to assist them in their learning tasks. Worse, one parent said, “Kasano ngayen dagidiay ad-ado pay ubbing na nga ma-asistaran nga aggigiddan? (How much more with those parents who have more children to assist at the same time?)”
Some parents also claimed they cannot guide their children in doing their modules as most of them finished elementary or secondary school. Other parents also worry instead of going to work, they need to stay home to guide their children in doing their self-learning activities.
These scenarios alone show this “new” educational setup really calls for stronger collaboration among stakeholders for our youths to continue learning and growing in this trying time. These are the times when constant and open communication between parents and teachers also need to be established to monitor the learners’ day-to-day activities.
This is also the time to make the ties with local government units and private entities stronger because schools cannot really stand alone. As what our schools division advocates, now is the time to keep the spirit of binnadang alive as things can be made possible by helping each other voluntarily.
With all these, we can lighten the load that parents will carry in this “new” school year and make learning still possible despite adversities. — Benjamin R. Sacla