March has always been the busiest month for students and teachers - until now.
Before the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) threw everything off balance, schools and students at the basic education level under the Department of Education (DepEd) have always been busy preparing for end-school-year activities during this month.
By this time, all sorts of school-related events were happening almost simultaneously including field trips, Foundation Day activities, and JS proms - among others.
March is also a “crunch time” for graduating students both in private and public schools as they to accomplish all the requirements before they proceed into a new level. Same goes for students in other grade levels.
But when the school year was adjusted due to the public health situation, the school calendar had a new face - one that students, parents and and teachers could barely recognize.
A school year of many firsts
The COVID-19 pandemic brought about many firsts in the history of education system in the country.
For the first time, classes started not in June but in October.
The semestral break for K to 12 students, which is usually done in October, will be held from March 15 to 19.
After DepEd amended the calendar for School Year (SY) 2020-2021, the classes will end in public schools on July 10, which - during the past years - should have been the opening of classes for a new school year already.
With the major adjustments in the current school calendar, all other activities - such as the conduct of graduation and other end-of-school-year rites, the two-month “summer” and even the opening of a new school year - are left hanging in a balance.
Impact on the children
For Education Secretary Leonor Briones, one of the biggest impact of COVID-19 disruption in education is the absence of face-to-face classes due to prolonged school closures.
“I’ve seen this happening, the implications to children after being confined in their houses for months,” Briones said.
While other countries gradually resumed face-to-face classes, Briones said that the Philippines remains the "only nation in Southeast Asia" that have yet to hold in-person classes at a time of the pandemic. “We try to be responsive to what they are experiencing during the transition but some children might be left behind,” she added.
Briones also expressed concern on how the prolonged school closures affect children’s health especially those who are having self-identity issues.
“It is a matter of children not doing well, many of them are struggling with their identity that is why students need a sense of normalcy,” she explained.
Need for face-to-face learning
As a teacher, Briones recognizes the importance face-to-face learning especially when it comes to the overall growth and development of students. “We have recommended the pilot testing of limited face-to-face classes in low risk areas and as we wait for the approval from the President, we are preparing for this,” she added.
Early this month, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) released a new data noting that schools for more than 168 million children globally have been completely closed for almost an entire year due to COVID-19 lockdowns.
UNICEF added that around 214 million children globally – or one in seven – have “missed more than three-quarters” of their in-person learning.
“As we approach the one-year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are again reminded of the catastrophic education emergency worldwide lockdowns have created,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore.
In order to call attention to the education emergency and raise awareness about the need for governments to keep schools open - or prioritize them in reopening plans - UNICEF also unveiled a “Pandemic Classroom.”
This “Pandemic Classroom” is a model classroom made up of 168 empty desks - each desk representing the million children living in countries where schools have been almost entirely closed - including the Philippines.
“With every day that goes by, children unable to access in-person schooling fall further and further behind, with the most marginalized paying the heaviest price,” Fore added.