“Adapting to Abrupt Change in Education Amidst this Pandemic”
By: MELANIE Y. PADILLA
Teacher III
The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified uncertainty around the world; the health, economy, finances, travel, employment, and even education. While a lot of factors during this period remain out of our control, the key is to adapt to these changes and face the future positively. Education amidst this pandemic is a great challenge for all the teachers, learners, and even parents. New normal brought difficult and extreme adjustment due to the newly introduced learning modalities.
To grasp the present new normal set-up, embracing the uncertainty and incorporating it into the decision-making is required. To cater to the needs of the schools in the new normal, all schools offered blended or purely online courses. As experienced by learners in Butuan Central Elementary School, the learner challenges are as follows, the poor internet connections by which learners learned through online classes aside from that, some learners are not that motivated since they only stayed in their homes. Next is answering the modules by themselves. Working alone is a challenging task, unlike when they are in a school, they are motivated by their teachers and peers. To them, working collaboratively with their classmates in the given tasks is much more appreciated.
During the Global Education Monitoring (GEM), the Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones expressed her support for inclusive education. Moreover, she shared how the Philippines responded to different challenges in education including the covid-19 pandemic and other disasters. As all of us know, the battle cry is that no one should be left behind. That includes people with disabilities and with special educational needs. The Constitution does not make any distraction between and among people of different groups and needs. It just says that it should be available to all Filipino children, to all Filipino learners in particular. And this is why, during this annual crisis, whether natural disasters or natural events and political interventions; It is always a must to make sure that education will continue and that no one will be left behind (DepEd, December 7, 2020).
People need to be resilient to be able to decide how to interpret the individual diversities. As well as being able to explain the situations more positively while still accepting the reality. Able to find an appreciation of what is gained to persevere and develop a more grateful approach.
Learners in the 21st century are now adopting technology. It would be a better tool to acquire knowledge and develop unique abilities, talents, and skills. Being equipped and has the willingness to adapt to changes would make things possible. ###
