• Nanay Cora is answering learning modules assigned to her 9-year-old studying at home.
• Children cry over the many lessons assigned to them by teachers who are under extreme stress themselves.
• An embarrassed parent who only finished Grade 6 confesses she would fail if made to answer higher grade modules.
• A teacher assigned to a remote area begs her mayor for help to print and deliver learning modules to her pupils.
• Many students can’t access learning materials or lessons from the web for lack of internet connection or, for the poor, lack of a suitable gadget of ‘load’.
• Enrolment in private schools has dropped by as much as 50 percent, putting many academic institutions on shaky ground.
These are just a few scenarios we hear about as School Year 2020-21 struggles under highly restrictive and difficult conditions .The big question now is how well will students learn under the “new normal” and how many will be left behind?
Major concerns at Ground Zero
The country’s education system faces severe challenges, not the least of which is how to make sure that everyone has access to quality education.
In a recent forum organized by BudgetWatch and sponsored by iLEAD, Rappler and Synergeia Foundation, we took a look at the proposed 2021 DepEd budget. We used the opportunity to highlight major concerns of education frontliners, which include the following:
1. Teachers need new training, retooling, protection and logistical support.
2. Many parents lack time and competence to mentor their children, and many will need orientation and training (Synergeia does a lot of teacher and parent training, but its coverage is limited).
3. Schools and learning communities are beset by connectivity issues, inadequate school physical layouts and capacity for the ‘new normal’ and not all schools need to close but are forced to.
4. Local School Boards, School Governing Councils and private partners are taking up the cudgels to cover identified gaps in the production of learning materials, and these materials need to be checked for relevance and accuracy.
5. Students need to adjust to learner-centered modalities with limited presence of teachers or adult tutors; and
6. Psychological factors (stressed teachers, overwhelmed learners, parents’ low self-worth) need proper attention.
DepEd’s COVID-19 response budget
Happily, the proposed 2021 budget of the Department of Education allocates P15.2 BILLION for Flexible Learning Options, a huge jump from the previous P600 million. This is a response to the blended learning approach adopted by DepEd during the time of COViD-19. Given the need for copious volumes of self-learning modules that must be produced, this budget will be a much-needed shot in the arm for beleaguered teachers and Local School Boards trying to cover large gaps between need and available resources.
So we gave a thumbs up for the large increase for Flexible Learning Options (an increase of 2,433 percent) and for computerization which also gets a big boost, from P4.8 billion to P8.9 billion. That is the good news.
Thumbs down for deep budget cuts
The budgets for ‘last mile’ schools, school electrification and the voucher program for Senior HS are now contingent on “availability of savings, new revenues or loan funds” (meaning bahala na). And sadly, no budgets are provided for indigenous people’s education, SPED (Special Education), human resource development (teacher training?) and the school feeding program. Simply put, ‘maraming maiiwan’ (a lot of learners will be left behind) because of the 2021 budget.
Prescriptions for education in the time of COVID-19
During the forum, we supported the call of DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan for the following:
1. Good planning and proper priorities (especially in addressing the problems of front-liners outlined above)
2. Institutional reforms to improve education governance
3. Partnerships with LGU’s, local communities and institutions to cover identified gaps
4. Innovation to enable learning continuity for the long term (beyond the pandemic) and adaptive solutions to ensure continuing access to quality education for all, not just the advantaged; and
5. Open communication among stakeholders to address the challenges as they emerge.
Former DepEd Undersecretary Mike Luz had his own thoughts about the adjustments that need to be made, but that will require another column.
With the speakership battle between Lord and Peter over and done with, we had hoped that Congress would find the time to examine the proposed budget and make the appropriate adjustments, particularly in terms of priorities. But the budget was passed on to the Senate very quickly, more to meet a deadline rather than craft a national spending program truly responsive to the times.
It’s now up to the Senate to show the way.*
