There is no doubt that the pandemic brought catastrophic change worldwide. Among lost lives, we had societal drawbacks such as inflation and unemployment rising dramatically over the said period. Life never quite returned to what it used to be. People were deprived of their many basic needs, one of them being education. As the demand for distance learning grew, the new normal was pushed and insisted towards students despite the country’s ongoing education crisis. As the academic years came and went, it merely proved that alone was not enough to satisfy each child’s learning needs. Written modules and online classes cannot just simply teach a child.
One of the many reasons for this implementation manifested itself in the execution of distance learning. In August 2020, the Department of Education established the New Normal Curriculum, where they stated that self-learning modules will be provided with other learning modalities. This was implemented to ensure that all students will have access to quality education during this time of crisis. Online learning was also a popular learning modality that was widely used by most schools during the pandemic. However, the new normal academic year that DepEd tried to achieve was far-flung, as many students were left behind due to the pandemic. Moreover, faulty materials were reported by students. The teachers, having been recently exposed to online teaching, struggled and it reflected on their students, who had a hard time focusing and eventually lost their mental stability and will to learn. The modules that were provided barely taught anyone anything, leaving them to be answered by someone else and not the students themselves. ⅕ of the five million students also failed to enroll; some due to the lack of educational materials, some chose to work instead, and some could not afford to pay the tuition fee due to the pandemic.
As unemployment rose and inflation worsened, each one’s basic needs were much harder to attain. When some households couldn’t even afford three meals a day, the added cost of educational needs became impossible to suffice. Laptops were needed for online classes, money for mobile load became a necessity, and internet signals were one’s top priority. Even while equipped With all of these tools, students were still reported to not have learned anything in their classes. These are all evident in the survey conducted by Rappler, where they found only 5.4% under blended learning, 5.7% under modular learning, and 9.1% under online learning learned more. Some don’t commit to their modules, while others do it solely for formality. Several parents pamper their children and do their tasks instead of having them do them on their own. Cheating also became more prevalent due to the lack of authority present and the lack of learning. The school became difficult to focus on as students were unable to form the necessary interpersonal relationships developed in school while in a virtual classroom. They became less motivated as their personal lives became more complicated and harder to balance alongside their academics.
It is also apparent that there is a division of class in the Philippines’ education system. Education is more of a privilege than a right in the country; only the privileged can continue their learning without being compromised, while those of the oppressed will be disturbed. Rich people can hire tutors, enroll in better academies, and access expensive but quality education–but those who cannot afford these luxuries are left with less than the bare minimum.
The Philippines’ education crisis has been going on for years, and yet quality education has not been achieved–in fact, only worsened during the pandemic. Perhaps if the government handled this case better, students wouldn’t have to suffer. With the implementation of modular learning, the focus was only on inclusivity and not effectiveness. Online learning, on the other hand, isn’t enough to meet a child’s learning needs. However, is there a more ideal learning method than the two? Can an education system that is free from bias, culturally diverse, and accessible be accomplished? Considering the current circumstances, we are left with no choice but to make do with what we have for now.
Distance learning failed to achieve one of its objectives–avoiding educational gaps. DepEd’s solutions may have been inclusive to all students, yet, they failed to accomplish the prime purpose of education: learning. Students are dropping out, teachers are struggling, and those in school are not learning. Though our country’s education crisis is more apparent in the pandemic, this crisis has been going on for years. Still, there is nothing we can do about it, especially since our clamors are rarely heard. If the government continues to disregard this issue, the so-called future of our country might fail.
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