by Kenneth Aquino Atiwag
Two years had passed under the strain of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was in the middle of March 2020 when President Rodrigo Roa Duterte declared the first lockdown, which effectively placed the entire Luzon under Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ). This was a few days after the World Health Organization (WHO) considered COVID 19 a pandemic. Many experts say that the deliberate control of the spread of the COVID19 virus required extreme health measures, but a lockdown or similarly called community quarantine. A series of community quarantines were subsequently subject to various restrictions until the concept of surgical or granular lockdown was introduced, followed by alert levels indicating varying degrees of restrictions or protocols to observe.
We had been caught off guard and one of the first sectors that have been hit hard was education. In no time, the educational landscape had dramatically changed. What used to be normal education processes of implementing programs, projects, and activities (PPAs), and especially the mode of learning delivery, that is face-to-face (F2F), seemed to have stalled.
It took a while for the education department to figure out and reconfigure everything to ensure the continuity of learning in the midst of COVID-19, which the country has been dealing with since then. The norms of the New Normal emerged. This signifies one’s determination to coexist with others while struggling to survive in the face of the pandemic. The Department of Education (DepEd) strove to carve out a niche for itself; it could not just stand by and watch events unfold from afar without rethinking itself, at least in terms of the teaching-learning process and the mental and emotional well-being of its stakeholders. For DepEd, learners are at the heart of its efforts to ensure that learning must continue. To do so, we accepted the notion of alternative work arrangements and other forms of learning delivery, as well as the strict mandate to follow health standards in the offices and schools set in DepEd Order No. 14, s. 2020. This highlighted the reality that delivering education services to achieve learning objectives is as ever a massive undertaking.
In the middle of 2020 DepEd released various issuances. DepEd issued DO 012 which requires the adoption of the Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan (BELCP). It aims to provide policy guidelines for the continuity of learning in basic education from kindergarten to grade 12. Further, it relatively decongested the curricula and identified the Most Essential Learning Competencies (MELC). The K to 12 curricula had been streamlined to 5,689 MECLs from the original 14,171, a reduction of 60 percent. In effect, public and private schools were asked to develop their School Learning Continuity Operational Plans (SLCOP), which they struggled to complete on time because they rarely meet each other physically or did not fully comprehend. Indeed, the Alternative Delivery Mode (ADM) of education had gained even more prominence. Also, to ensure their readiness, private schools must comply with the readiness assessment checklist for learning delivery modalities required in DO 13 and 17. That is, depending on the modality chosen whether combinations of face-to-face with Online Distance Learning (Learning Management System or LMS), face-to-face with Modular Distance Learning (printed Self-Learning Modules or SLMs), and Face-to-face with TV/Radio Based Instruction the private schools must comply with all the standards in each learning delivery modality.
In public schools, the Learning Delivery Modality (LDM) 1 and 2 Courses were designed to prepare the school heads, teachers, instructional leaders, and supervisors to continue delivering learning instructions and assessments required in the new normal. These courses consist of modules that are self-directed and which they have completed supposedly by the end of SY 2020-2021.
At one point in the course, teachers learn to develop SLMs for the learners that are aligned with the MELC standards, along with how to deliver instructions in a modular distance learning setup. School heads and instructional leaders like master teachers learn facilitative skills in managing their schools and in implementing the curriculum in times of crisis like the COVID-19 situation. LDM 1 and 2 effectively actualize the delivery of services in the new normal, as well as the attainment of standards and competencies required under the new Philippine Professional Standard for Teachers (PPST), School Heads (PPSH), and Supervisors (PPSS), and whose performance is measured at the end of the year through the Result-Based Performance Management System (RPMS). Outputs in the LDM could have supported their performance throughout the first year of the pandemic and the current school year. It should be recalled that DepEd announced the new PPSH, PPSS, and further revisions of the PPST in regard to learning continuity and achievement of outcomes in the new normal.
Indeed, COVID-19 made a dramatic turnaround in the basic education sector, pushing it to reimagine what it takes to ensure learning continuity. The power of information, communications, and technology (ICT) became a life saver for us in several ways. We leveraged ICT to deliver the services expected in terms of preparing our stakeholders for the new normal. To adhere to existing health standards, most training, orientations, conferences, or meetings were performed remotely. We have begun to realize that internet platforms are powerful norms for engagements. No matter how we may want at first to avoid these online tools, we eventually became used to them, gained confidence in them, and even embraced them.
Learning instructions were diversified in a variety of ways, along with printed self-learning modules, digitization, and audio-visuals distributed via various electronic media like optical and flash drives, tablets, teacher-created Chat Rooms on Facebook Messenger, and Learning Management Systems (LMS), among others. Some schools used low-cost two-way radios to support the learners as they progressed through the modules. At the macro level, television and radio outlets, as well as social media platforms like Facebook Live and YouTube Channels, were used. For almost two years, these synchronous and asynchronous alternative platforms have made a difference in the teaching-learning process.
We also saw reconfigurations of business models on all fronts of the enterprise. The atmosphere of cooperation among our external and internal stakeholders was noticeable. The partnership had become even stronger and more entrenched. Major companies such as Google, Zoom, Microsoft, and others that provide online collaboration platforms quickly reexamined and updated their business models to suit new ways of delivering education and learning in the new normal. Partners came in and volunteered their help at a time when education was looking for new ways and resources to teach the children. We saw donations such as Xerox machines, printers, alcohol, sanitizers, face masks, face shields, bond papers, routers for internet access, and many other items donated. Thanks to local government units, alumni, parents, people’s organizations, and civic-minded individuals, businesses, and other institutions. Many local and international institutions have also made their learning and development programs available for free. Anyone can simply select from a menu of training options they are interested in. Remote participation in such training was possible because of the internet and other ICT tools.
Towards enhancing functional literacy, the Brigada Pagbasa was launched at the beginning of this school year. It is a multi-sectoral partnership initiative that aims to help Filipino children become functionally literate by improving their reading skills. This project is gaining traction, according to ongoing monitoring. After all, education is a shared responsibility and accountability.
For almost two years, DepEd provided learners with distant and remote learning support. Until recently, under certain regulations, all 103 and nine (9) public and private schools, respectively, in the Schools Division of Tabuk City were permitted to implement limited face-to-face sessions for the remaining months of the current school year. They prepared their schools following the standards defined by DepEd and DOH Joint Memorandum Circular No. 001, which was issued in the middle of 2021, as well as the succeeding DepEd issuances on the matter. Essentially, schools must comply with school safety operations in terms of ensuring shared responsibility with stakeholders, alternative work arrangements, classroom layout and structure, school traffic management, protective measures like hygiene and safety procedures, communication strategy, contingency planning, availability of learning resources, complete profiling of learners, teacher support, case management strategy for infected learner and personnel, and among others.
Again, the supports of concerned local government units and other stakeholders are overwhelming. Although, when the alert level is raised to level 3 classes will stop automatically. Hopefully, the seemingly favorable public health situation at present will be sustained or become even better paving the way for a full blast face-to-face classes in the school year 2022-2023.
In closing, the gains realized in the past two years should be valued. Even if face-to-face in-person classes in full capacity will be allowed next school year and beyond, the investments made by DepEd and its partners will continue to be truly useful and profitable in the pursuit of fully establishing quality, accessible, relevant, and liberating 21st-century education that is at par with other advanced countries. As a result, everyone in the department should continue to value and maintain these investments for the benefit of the youth. Meanwhile, as part of the process of continuous improvement, the numerous challenges that remain must be reevaluated to arrive at feasible solutions with the assistance of education partners. The good, the bad, and the ugly of education for the past two years constitute an overall learning experience. The author is an Education Program Specialist II at the Tabuk City DepEd.
