Cheda Trisha D.

Abcede
12-Perseverance B

BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The present COVID-19 pandemic has brought extraordinary challenges and has affected the
educational sectors, and no one knows when it will end. Every country is presently implementing
plans and procedures on how to contain the virus, and the infections are still continually rising. In
the educational context, to sustain and provide quality education despite lockdown and community
quarantine, the new normal should be taken into consideration in the planning and implementation
of the “new normal educational policy”. This article presents opportunities for responding issues,
problems and trends that are currently arising and will arise in the future due to COVID-19
pandemic through the lens of education in the Philippines - the new educational norm. Many
countries have (rightly) decided to close schools, colleges and universities. The crisis crystallises
the dilemma policymakers are facing between closing schools (reducing contact and saving lives)
and keeping them open (allowing workers to work and maintaining the economy). The severe
short-term disruption is felt by many families around the world: home schooling is not only a
massive shock to parents’ productivity, but also to children’s social life and learning. Teaching is
moving online, on an untested and unprecedented scale. Student assessments are also moving
online, with a lot of trial and error and uncertainty for everyone. Many assessments have simply
been cancelled. Importantly, these interruptions will not just be a short-term issue, but can also
have long-term consequences for the affected cohorts and are likely to increase inequality. Going
to school is the best public policy tool available to raise skills. While school time can be fun and
can raise social skills and social awareness, from an economic point of view the primary point of
being in school is that it increases a child’s ability. Even a relatively short time in school does this;
even a relatively short period of missed school will have consequences for skill growth. But can
we estimate how much the COVID-19 interruption will affect learning? Not very precisely, as we
are in a new world; but we can use other studies to get an order of magnitude. Two pieces of
evidence are useful. Carlsson et al. (2015) consider a situation in which young men in Sweden
have differing number of days to prepare for important tests. These differences are conditionally
random allowing the authors to estimate a causal effect of schooling on skills. The authors show
that even just ten days of extra schooling significantly raises scores on tests of the use of knowledge
(‘crystallized intelligence’) by 1% of a standard deviation. As an extremely rough measure of the
impact of the current school closures, if we were to simply extrapolate those numbers, twelve
weeks less schooling (i.e. 60 school days) implies a loss of 6% of a standard deviation, which is
non-trivial. They do not find a significant impact on problem-solving skills (an example of ‘fluid
intelligence’). A different way into this question comes from Lavy (2015), who estimates the
impact on learning of differences in instructional time across countries. Perhaps surprisingly, there
are very substantial differences between countries in hours of teaching. For example, Lavy shows
that total weekly hours of instruction in mathematics, language and science is 55% higher in
Denmark than in Austria. These differences matter, causing significant differences in test score
outcomes: one more hour per week over the school year in the main subjects increases test scores
by around 6% of a standard deviation. In our case, the loss of perhaps 3-4 hours per week teaching
in maths for 12 weeks may be similar in magnitude to the loss of an hour per week for 30 weeks.
So, rather bizarrely and surely coincidentally, we end up with an estimated loss of around 6% of a
standard deviation again. Leaving the close similarity aside, these studies possibly suggest a likely
effect no greater than 10% of a standard deviation but definitely above zero. Within the new
normal, the situation presents a unique challenge to every educational leader’s decision-making
process. Hence, to sustain the delivery of quality of instruction to every school, this article presents
opportunities for responding issues, problems and trends that are arising and will arise in the future
due to COVID-19 pandemic. The author has a keen interest in the current and future trends in the
new normal education. According to Karalis (2020), what is worth studying after returning to
normality, are the implications that have arisen for the day after, that is, what adjustments need to
be made, the extent of the situation and to define the basic dimensions of education and learning
in formal education systems and organizations amid educational disruptions. Wearing of Face
Masks and Physical Distancing. Along with the current spread of COVID-19 pandemic, physical
distancing and face masks wearing to public and private schools are compulsory once classes are
resumed or started. Governments around the world have issued policies and guidelines to
implement physical distancing in orderto flatten the pandemiccurve (Greenstone & Nigam, 2020;
Thunstrom et al., 2020). In addition, wearing of face masks or even personal protective equipment
(PPE) as a public health intervention would probably intercept the transmission link and prevent
communicable diseases (Huang, 2020). Thus, students, faculty members and non-teaching staff
should be required to wear face masks and maintain physical distancing with each other when
going to schools. In addition, they will be required to strictly follow hygienic practices, health
protocols and other precautionary measures such as contact tracing, foot baths, sanitation and
frequent handwashing. One of the challenges of schools is to reduce student-teacherratio which
will lead to problems like lack of classrooms and other physical plants and facilities, lack of
teachers and lack of learning materials. Nonetheless, public health is a concern. Thereby, this
recommends every learning institution to plan such measures and policies on physical distancing
and wearing of face masks. Strengthening Online Learning Platforms Nowadays, we all are staying
in our homes due to the lockdown policy implemented by the government. However, learning
should not halt. Different countries worldwide have introduced various answers during the
pandemic to continue the education process – the introduction of distance learning. These are
online learning platforms such as google, TV broadcasts, guidelines, resources, video lectures and
online channels were introduced (UNESCO, 2020). With schools to reopen its doors the following
school year, it’s vital to plan how schools will be able to pursue their mission of implementing
quality education to every student. As school is a public place where crowd is unavoidable and
children are vulnerable, there is a need to strengthen policy in terms of the delivery of instruction
- to provide opportunities for online learning platforms. Numerous innovative programs have been
proposed by the different learning sectors in the Philippines. The Department of Education
emphasized that it would not necessarily mean that teachers and learners will go to schools and
learn inside the classrooms and devised various modalities to ensure that online learning a choice
among all others in this new learning environment (DepEd, 2020). Similarly, in the higher
education institutions, new normal would be virtual classrooms. The Commission on Higher
Education suggested to strengthen online platforms and blended learning such as but not limited
to google classroom, messenger, zoom, edmodo, Facebook and YouTube (CHED, 2020). In
addition, both will adopt numerous learning delivery options such as but not limited to face-to-
face, blended learnings, distance learnings, and home-schooling and other modes of delivery
(CHED, 2020; DepEd, 2020). However, the implementation would pose such problems on
students who have limited internet access, no gadgets and the poor. According to the report of
Akamai (2017), the Philippines has the lowest internet connectivity in Asia. Besides, such
challenges would be equity gaps, students security and safety, quality of learning compromised
and poor assessment results (Winthrop, 2020). Changes on the grading system, assessment and
evaluation of student’s performance will also be a challenge to every administrator. In addition,
laboratory activities in sciences and other subjects that require performance such as Physical
Education and culture and arts would be limited to paper and pen test, unless schools will require
students to be physically present to be assessed through performance tests. In addition, extra-
curricular activities in school such as scouting, proms, sports intramurals,contests and foundation
day will be reduced and discontinued. In terms of teaching, teacher training to online instruction,
blended learning and distance learning is also recommended in order to adjust to the new
instructional format (Toquero, 2020). Teacher competencies in both pedagogy and technology
should be reinforced. This transition to the new normal, from the four corners of the classroom to
the borders of virtual reality, every learning institution needs to study how successful online
learning is in providing quality education and outcomes-based education to students (Basilaia &
Kvavadze, 2020). Strengthening Research and Development in Health Schools need to strengthen
research and development in terms of health. One of the functions of every higher education
institution is to contribute to the generation of knowledge and its application through research and
development endeavors. Higher education needs to demonstrate competitiveness, effectiveness
and efficiency by strengthening research activities in the field of health and pandemic (Toquero,
2020). Aligned with the plans of the WHO, every institution should accelerate innovative research
and development programs to help contain the spread of the pandemic and facilitate care for those
affected. Next is to support research priorities that contribute to worldwide research platforms in
hopes of learning from the present pandemic response to better prepare for the next unforeseen
epidemic (WHO, 2020a). Within these global changes, it has affected the overall education
institutions and there is a great need to study on how each sector in the government will evaluate
the scenario, plan, adapt and implement such policies and programs in responding to this crisis.
Program Creation and Health Integration. The creation of new program offerings related to health,
medicine and research is also a need in higher education. As the demand increases for doctors,
nurses and medical technologies at present, HEIs should increase and scout students opportunities
to study programs related the pandemic’s eradication. In addition, health education should be
integrated into courses and subjects in both basic and higher education, strengthen school medical
services, hygienic practices and mental health (Toquero, 2020). Integrating health literacy to
education is more needed than in these days when COVID-19 crisis is still evident today (Abel &
McQueen, 2020). This educational approach would lead everyone to address future health issues
such as global pandemic.
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

COVID-19
(Moderator Variable)

*Learning disruption EDUCATION IN THE

*Funding/Debt PHILIPPINES
*Dropouts/loss of interest (Dependent Variable)
*Job losses
*Prolong study
*Limited learning facilities
*Limited Education
opportunities
*Research constraints
*Interrupted learning
*nutrition
*Unequal access to digital
learning portals
*Increased pressure on
schools and school system
*Social Isolation
(Independent Variable)

This Conceptual Framework shows how COVID-19 can affect the education in the Philippines.
Learning disruption, funding/debt, dropouts/loss of interest, job losses, prolong study, limited
learning facilities, limited education opportunities and research constraints would affect the
student’s education depending on the problems faced by the students and the parents.
School provides essential learning and when they are closed, students are deprived of opportunities
for growth and development. Many youngsters rely on free or discounted meals provided at
schools for food and healthy nutrition. This is compromised as a result of school closures for
coronavirus. Lack of access to technology or good internet connectivity for continued learning
during school closures. Localized school closures place burdens on schools as parents tend redirect
their children to open schools. Considering the fact that educational institutions are hubs for social
activity and human interactions, school closures can deprive youth and children of some social
communications and socializations that are essential to learning, development and creativity.
Ergo, COVID-19 would affect the learnings of the students here in the Philippines.
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