With the continuous surge of Covid-19 cases restricting movements and taking its toll in our health care system with increasing daily average cases, everybody wonders what is there to hope for. The education sector is not an exemption.
From March 16, 2020, learners in basic education were forced to finish the school year at the safe confines of their homes. It was like an early summer vacation since they just have to complete their requirements for promotion to the next grade level.
When school year 2020-2021 started and people realized that the virus is not a joke but is staying, educators experienced the predicament on how not to disrupt the delivery of basic education services. Then they painstakingly developed printed modules for distance learning with the hope to keep learners on task. School stakeholders volunteered their services to bring education to the doorsteps of the learners.
Throughout the year, educators have interestingly kept communication lines with learners open in various platforms. They have also implemented innovations and initiated strategies to make learning not only more accessible and uninterrupted but also safe. This was aside from ensuring that the needed competencies of the learners are addressed. The mission was dutifully accomplished.
This school year 2021-2022 on the second year of distance learning, the Department of Education, through its schools, is full of enthusiasm to give online education a try – an option aside from printed modules. It is now on its transitory period of shifting the mindset of all when it comes to online distance learning with face-to-face learning being kept at bay.
The bottleneck this time is the sad reality of the pandemic causing suddenly unemployed parents to be incapable of providing an android phone, laptop and stable Internet connection, sufficient to convince them to register their child under those who could participate in online classes. This becomes a wet blanket also for educators to do their best and embrace an online learning management system.
What dismisses skepticism though are surveys showing a number of learners, educators, and households owning gadgets and having interconnectivity, more so with the country being on top when it comes to the use of social media. These serve as flames that spark the possibility of effective online learning.
With the unrelenting progress of technology, the wide array of convenience that it offers and the numerous opportunities for global employment like online selling, and marketing, virtual assistance business, blogging, medical technology transcription, vlogging, dropshipping, online consultancy services, and marketing, I believe that a change in personal paradigm to open up a new lifeline and eventually a buffet of chances for the future builders of the nation is timely and indispensable. It will not happen overnight but acceptance and a growth mindset to start with, might cause the necessary big push. (JAYREROSE S. GUEVARA)
April 24, 2024
