THE GOVERNMENT has two months until August to finish its “greatest homework” of adjusting the school system to the pandemic reality, which is to prevent some 31 million students from physically attending classes in packed school. It should use the run up to the mid-August opening of classes to prepare both public and private schools for the “new education normal” and come up with a blended or hybrid plan for students of all needs (combination of online courses, mass media instruction, traditional in-school classes, and home visits, among other modalities).
To use a teaching term, the government has two months to write a “new lesson plan” of education in the time of coronavirus, and it is not an easy task. It should now pool its brightest minds to try and solve this pandemic puzzle and allow for an efficient education system without exposing students, teachers and school employees to risks. Because for as long as no vaccine against COVID-19 is available, our children will face mortal danger if they are told to physically return to school.
But allowing students to stay idle while the world waits on a vaccine is counter-productive, and should not be the case. Widespread vaccination is the requisite for the universal return to schools. On the other hand, children will suffer if their schooling will stop. Hence, the need for alternative forms in which students will learn outside the traditional classroom setting. We have to do something to allow our kids to keep on learning.
The main challenge is how teachers will pick from the cafeteria of learning options and apply it to a learner based on the latter’s geographic location, home environment, socioeconomic status, and digital infrastructure, to cite just a few considerations.
And to allow the Department of Education to shift to the new normal, the government should spare it from budgetary cuts. The sheer size of the country’s school system call for massive infusion of resources. There are 61,916 public and private K-12 schools. On the tertiary level, there are 242 state and local universities and colleges and 1,721 private institutions. As to enrollees, there are 27.8 million in basic education this school year, plus 2.9 million in tertiary education.
Our overall goal should be to ensure that the education of our young will not be interrupted.
