Extra challenging but still rewarding.
This is probably how most Filipino teachers would describe what it’s like to teach under a new learning setup amid a raging pandemic.
For the second straight year, the Department of Education (DepEd) is implementing the Basic Education-Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP), which was crafted as a response to the disruptions brought by the COVID-19 pandemic to the education sector.
Under the BE-LCP, education is delivered to students in the comfort of their homes through multiple learning delivery modalities.
Whether it’s printed or offline modular, online, television, or radio-based instruction, or “blended learning,” a combination of these modalities, teachers play a very important role in ensuring that education continues regardless of its form and shape.
As the country celebrates the National Teachers’ Month (NTM) from Sept. 5 to Oct. 5, we take a look at the challenges being faced by Filipino teachers.
Find out how they are coping with the current distance learning setup, which will probably become a post-pandemic feature of the Philippine education system.
The crucial role of teachers
In the education sector, teachers are considered frontliners in this pandemic.
Just like how health workers take care of their patients, teachers are expected to look after their students to ensure that their education continues despite all the challenges.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones recognizes the very important role of teachers, especially now.
“I hope that we will all be challenged to continually do what we can to bring and create innovative and daring methods of teaching so that we can bring education to all our learners,” she says.
In the current learning setup, teachers do not wait for the students to go to school since face-to- face classes remain prohibited.
They are tasked to monitor their students remotely through calls, text messages, emails, and through different social media platforms.
Aside from discussing the lessons, teachers are also expected to consult with the parents or guardians for any school-related concerns.
They also need to review the outputs of the learners on top of other requirements set by the school or the DepEd.
A teacher’s dilemma
As they are affected by the pandemic too, teachers are also having their own shares of challenges and struggles.
Kristhean Navales, a Grade 4 teacher from General Roxas Elementary School in Quezon City, worries about learning loss and the decline of education quality under the distance learning setup.
In the last school year, according to Navales, his students had “poorer retention of lessons.” As their teacher, he also struggled to make the most of their already short attention span.
Mostly, he attributed this to the lack of “teachers’ touch,” due to the superficial interaction between teachers and students under the remote learning setup.
Navales notes that before, teachers like him could “observe closely the progress” of students’ learning. “We could also provide timely feedback and assist in their overall development at this crucial stage in children’s lives,” he says.
Without face-to-face classes, however, Navales feels that teachers like him have been “reduced to someone who merely gives out instructions to students, provides and collects school work—no longer an educator, a second parent.” Given this, Navales hopes that the pandemic “will end soon” so he and his students can safely return to school and he may continue performing his vocation.
“I also hope that if schools will soon slowly re-open in low risk areas, unlike Quezon City, then perhaps the government can gather enough lessons so as to also gradually enable the reopening of schools in NCR even if COVID-19 isn’t completely gone, just as other countries have,” he added.
For Navales, education cannot merely “continue for the sake of continuing,” it has to have “good quality” for the benefit of the youth and the country.
Never give up
While many teachers are overwhelmed with the challenges under the new setup, there are also those who refuse to give in. Instead, they try to embrace the challenges of the so-called “new normal” to help ensure that learning will continue.
Darwin Calimlim, a Master Teacher 1 at the Las Piñas East National High School, says that while these are indeed challenging times, teachers should never let the pandemic get the best of them.
“Masaya at mahirap ang maging guro, lalo na ngayong panahon (It is fun and hard to be a teacher, especially at this time),” Calimlim says, noting that there are many teachers who are anxious and concerned due to COVID-19.
He believes, however, that the government and the education sector, through DepEd, are “doing their best” to hear the voices of teachers and to address their concerns.
To help him cope with the changes in the education sector in this new setup, Calimlim has been participating in various programs of DepEd.
For instance, he has been joining and attending webinars, especially those related to digital education and technology. “Ngayon sa lahat ng mga natutunan ko sa webinars, palagay ko, ito ang magsisilbing gabay at pag-angkop sa mga teknolohiyang kinakailangan natin bilang isang guro (From what I have been learning in webinars, I think these will serve as a guide for us to adapt to the technologies we need as teachers),” he says.
In his personal capacity, Calilim has also launched the project “Itlog ko, Alay ko” to offer food for children affected by the pandemic.
For Calimlim, teachers are in a position to do more. Despite the challenges under the new learning setup, he believes that the teachers’ passion and dedication will not be deterred by this pandemic.
While the new setup can be overwhelming at times, Calimlim expressed hope that teachers will continue to find the strength to overcome the challenges ahead and be open to the opportunities made available for them. “We must embrace it, adopt it, and go beyond it,” he says.