Plans for school reopening

In a few weeks schools will reopen in the country. Amid a still raging pandemic and calls for an academic freeze this year, many experts see the need for education to continue. Society must continue learning, and formal education is an essential part of that. More than ever, we need more skilled labor and expertise relevant to this crisis. The question is how do we go about it?

At the University of the Philippines where I teach part-time, the school opening is viewed as challenging but exciting. Challenging because it calls for the overdue transformation of higher education. And exciting because it opens up opportunities for schools to experiment with new and creative ways of delivering programs and courses, and to institutionalize innovations that enhance learning.

UP plans to conduct all courses this first semester remotely. In certain circumstances, in-person instruction or laboratory work may be done, but only with the approval of higher university officials. It must also comply with the guidelines set by the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) and the local government unit. The school will also consider the situation of students who may not have reliable access to online platforms.

According to the memorandum I received from UP, remote teaching and learning covers both asynchronous or non-real time communication and synchronous or real-time communication. Asynchronous communication between teachers and learners includes email and social media messenger apps, while synchronous communication includes online lectures, webinars and teleconferences via Zoom or Google Meet. The past few months have been spent orienting teachers and getting them ready for remote teaching and learning.

The first and second semesters could be shortened to 14 weeks and the opening of the first semester could also be moved from August to September. This possibility will be decided by UP in the coming weeks. Regardless of the adjustments that will be made, what is important is the quality of the content delivery, one that would ensure that students at the end of each semester are capable of demonstrating that they learned.

Still, at any given day I always prefer in-person teaching from remote teaching. The in-person classroom experience allows for nuanced interactions between teacher and students which build on teaching and learning outcomes. I have thrived in such a setting in my 20 years of teaching, improving on and mastering the craft as I gained more experience. But then we just have to adjust to what must be done at this time. I can only hope that this pandemic will soon be over and we can do in-person classes again.

Until we can assure the complete safety of teachers and learners, we cannot afford to take the risk of going back to the physical classrooms. Recent studies have shown evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus could remain floating and can spread through air in indoor environments. Classes conducted under the acacia tree or in any open air setting may pose lesser risk but then a school campus still remains a potentially crowded place for close interaction among students, which is a problem especially when we are dealing with elementary and high school kids.

The good news is that our country is not alone in facing this challenge to our educational system. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has released a five-part series on education in the time of COVID-19. It summarizes in practical terms what can be done to address some of the challenges confronting countries in ensuring access to quality education during this pandemic. It is available at http://www.iiep.unesco.org/en/five-steps-support-education-all-time-covid-19-13382.