This coming school year, students will, for the third year, be urged to choose whether to skip school or continue education prior to whatever modality of learning is offered by their respective institutions.
This choice, whichever it may be, will definitely describe how their story will be told in the next few months.
But for a graduating Education student like me, it is a choice of whether I would be able to finish my bachelor’s degree on time or be delayed for a while.
Last May, Commission on Higher Education Chair Prospero de Vera said, “There is no going back to the traditional, full-packed face-to-face classrooms” to reduce the risks and transmission of the virus that we all are trying to avoid for a year and so now. He added, “The old paradigm of face-to-face versus online will now disappear.”
This statement has stirred students and teachers to engage in a discussion that prevailed in various online platforms. Some showed strong acceptance and support towards the movement, while others urged the government to take action for a safe back-to-school program.
CHED’s statement came to me as a double-edged sword. Back then, I still have hope that I would be able to experience a traditional teaching internship. But with the increasing number of Covid-19 cases in the country as well as the emergence of the Delta variant, there is no other way but to accept the fact that a face-to-face classroom teaching experience is not really possible at the moment.
What makes it more saddening is that the modular approach in our final year in college is no longer plausible, especially that we will be trained on how to conduct classes online with the use of various learning management systems. This means that soon-to be-teachers should be equipped with the necessary tools and equipment to ensure that quality teaching transpires in this new norm in education.
With this, it is only a matter of choice and capability whether a student in the field would be able to join the class this coming school year, unless CHED and the respective higher education institutions release a more student and budget-friendly guideline to meet the demands of the curriculum, only those who are technologically equipped and could afford to enroll would be able to practice the skills needed in the profession. (JOSHUA NICO BATI)
April 27, 2024
