001 PANDEMIC SCHOOLS
It’s now Year Two of this horrible pandemic, and as everyone knows, the education system is one of the more obvious casualties. While the education department feared the logistical nightmares and falling enrollment rates during each pandemic school year, teachers and parents are forced to take on most of the challenges of teaching and learning in the age of Covid-19.
And what of the children? Surely, they’re suffering too.
Many, of course, miss the daily rituals of going to school, where they get to interact with classmates—their friends really—as well as have the fun and games they’ve grown accustomed to from previous years of schooling (It must be noted though, as reported in the US, some students actually thrived in the so-called “new normal” school, particularly the more introverted and the bullied).
Then, they all have to deal with the difficulties of learning from home. Whether they’re fortunate enough to attend classes online or fated to rely on printed modules to learn what they’d normally have difficulties with even when the teacher is around.
We’ve all heard the complaints, from students, of course, but also from their parents and teachers. With this pandemic, it’s obvious that everyone has a lot to learn about learning.
This, however, may be the silver lining. We’re all forced to rethink education because of the pandemic. And this is such a good thing because we’ve been complacent for far too long now. As you may already know, Philippine basic education was never in a good place even before the pandemic (Those who think otherwise might want to read up on PISA and TIMSS to know where we stand with the rest of the world).
So, while we desperately look for solutions to the many difficulties of new normal schooling, we might as well see this as an opportunity to find more lasting solutions in teaching and learning.
The challenges of new normal schooling can’t be addressed solely by mere logistical and technological solutions.
We need to focus on the basics of good teaching and learning.
It’s the only way our schools can address the poor quality of educational services, both in pandemic times and beyond.
This pandemic offers a unique opportunity for us to reform Philippine education where it matters—in each school.
And each school can improve—excel even—if they can reinvent themselves at this opportune time.
Some wonderful things are happening already. For one, the pandemic has forced so many people to become more tech-savvy. At the same time, parents have been getting more involved in their children’s education, something that would not have happened if we didn’t have this pandemic.
So even while these things are simply a response to new normal realities, they’ll also help schools improve after the pandemic.
We’ve proven many times in the past that it is in times of crisis that we bring out the best in people. As this pandemic may very well be the biggest crisis of our generation, we must not allow it to go to waste.