The heart and soul of DepEd’s modular learning

Long before the pandemic, teachers meet their students face to face every day. Teachers motivate the learning process, give clear instructions, discuss lessons, conduct performance tests, exams and recitation from time to time. They also praise them and offer rewards and incentives for extra effort and job well done by the students.

Teachers have to fill a complex set of roles as instructors, advisers, guidance counselors, resource providers, instructional and curriculum specialists, classroom managers, learning facilitators, paramedics, clerical jobs, ancillary tasks, etc. For them, the parental role as loco parentis at school is never easy responsibility, always a challenge.

All these suddenly changed when the pandemic hit the country and the world. The academic landscape has become rough terrain, and complicated cases as teaching have shifted from teachers to parents.

Fully resolved that education must continue against all odds, the Department of Education (DepEd) introduced different learning modalities to cope with the crisis in education. It has designed a temporary solution for the learners through its basic education learning continuity plan. In compliance with the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force) health protocol and safety standard, the most popular distance learning modalities are delivered through online platforms, TV and radio educational programs, and printed modules.

Online Distance Learning is internet and gadget-dependent. This modality has a good start but cannot sustain due to internet connectivity issues and load budget by both teachers and learners. The TV and radio-based programs also failed to reach remote areas without power supplies, signals, and low-income families without appliances.

What has survived at the end of the challenging school year until now are the printed materials. Despite the scarcity of budget, production cost, environmental, grammatical, and content issues, the Self Learning Modules (SLMs) have prevailed.

The sustainability of the SLMs is because of the teachers' dedication and commitment to produce and print such learning materials. However, the unlimited role of the teacher has been narrowed down in providing the learning materials and assessing students’ outputs or performance. Suddenly, the parents without essential qualifications and teaching experience become instant teachers because they are the ones who conduct the actual teaching.

Hence, COVID-19 has made the busy parent an incidental teacher in trying times. The heart and soul of modular learning who play a dramatic role are the parents and guardians. Without their full support, cooperation, and sacrifices, modular learning will not be realized. The time and effort of the parents and the lack of it make modular education success or failure. Being responsible and responsive parents are the essential resources for education in pandemic times and beyond.