DepEd, CHED too distant to learners

At this stage, both the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) are still evolving in coming up with the “new normal” of learning amid the continuing public health crisis spawned by the 2019 coronavirus disease, or COVID-19 pandemic.

The Dep-Ed, in particular, have come up with a combination of modular, radio and television, and electronic or online under the so-called “blended-learning.” In the case of CHED, they call it “flexible learning” which also include online or e-learning that many colleges and universities in the Philippines have been doing even in the past.

This is in line with the no face-to-face classes until an anti-COVID vaccine is developed as a declared policy of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Both DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones is one of the Cabinet officials in the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging and Infectious Diseases (IATF) as the policy-making body on the quarantine and other anti-COVID measures. It was only recently that President Duterte appointed CHED chairman Prospero de Vera as latest member under the expanded IATF composition.

According to DepEd, out of total enrolment, 21.5 million students are in public schools while only 1.59 million enrolled in private schools. Although school opening has been reset already to Oct.5, DepEd allowed some private schools that already started their classes to continue but only through the so-called “e-learning.”

The CHED, on the other hand, has no enrolment data yet for this school year 2020-2021. But last school year, the CHED reported 3.2 million total enrolment of students in both private and public tertiary educational institutions. Of this total, 1.83 million students are enrolled in private while 1.57 million students enrolled in state colleges and universities (SCUs).

While online classes or digital education brings “increased levels of safety” because students are at home and are not exposed to the COVID-19 virus, the Department of Health (DOH) warned it could have an impact on students’ mental and psychological health. The DOH explained the online classes are likely to increase students’ feeling of isolation due to lack of face-to-face interaction. “Students may experience health concerns related to increased screen time such as fatigue, headache, lack of motivation, avoidance/procrastination, among others,” the DOH warned.

However, the DOH suggested certain measures can be taken to prevent these kinds of situation to develop into more serious mental and state of mind of schoolchildren and even students. To relieve students who have anxieties associated with the lack of in-person interaction, there are measures that can be undertaken, such as taking breaks in between classes and having time away from the computer.

But as stated in my previous columns, the two-month delay of school opening would not still solve the disconnect of “e-learning” to many public schools all over the country. No less than the official figures from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) showed only above income Filipinos can afford to be connected to “e-learning” platform.

It is most welcome to know that one of our country’s leading information communication technology (ICT) giant has teamed up with global tech giants Microsoft and Google to make connectivity and digital solutions more accessible to over a hundred schools, colleges and universities nationwide. The Philippine Long Distance and Telephone (PLDT), along with its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications and PLDT Enterprise will provide for discounted PLDT Home Wifi and Smart Bro Pocket Wifi units powered by Smart LTE. To date, Smart provides high-speed mobile internet service to over 93 percent of the country’s cities and municipalities and 95 percent of the population.

It is still frustrating though for a great number of Filipino students, especially those who belong to the marginalized or low income households. Take the case of the 19-year-old daughter of my kasambahay who is taking up ICT course.

A scholar in one public local college in Metro Manila, she is able to pursue her course along with two siblings also studying in public school. Somehow, her parents managed to get enough money out of savings and loans, they were able to procure from a pawnshop a P7,000 second-hand laptop. Since it was used by a previous owner, the laptop has inherent problems typical of hand-me-down gadgets. So they returned the unit and fortunately got back their money.

Through her sheer ability though, she is able to continue online study using her mother’s “buy-a-load” mobile phone. But when her professor learned she is using another gadget, she got downgraded. She got distraught but kept matters to herself. One night, she suffered extreme stomach aches and cold sweats.

Luckily, my doctor-son was at home where her mother took her. Good thing my son, with his pre-med psychology degree, was able to diagnose her as having panic or anxiety attack. After making her blow into paper bag and drink hot milk, he advised the young lass to open up and talk to her parents. That’s just an onset of her anxiety episodes but at least she knows how to handle it now.

She is more fortunate. An incoming 19-year-old “Balik-Aral” student in Albay reportedly hanged himself in Sto. Domingo town. Prior to this reported suicide, his mother claimed her son had been complaining about the expenses for “network loads” or internet fees for online class.

In her vitual press briefing last Monday, the DepEd Secretary vowed to look into the reported COVID-19 suicide incident and determine the “underlying triggers” if COVID-related stressors. Briones disclosed DepEd had started with the provision of psycho-social counselling services primarily delivered online or via webinars as a result of the quarantine and social distancing restrictions.

Implementing distance-learning methods, DepEd and CHED should not be too distant to the hard realities on the ground that students face amid COVID pandemic. One suicide incident is one too many.