In order to further strengthen the role of parents and teachers as the education frontline

amid COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Education (DepEd) is conducting a series

of Psychosocial Support and Training for parents, teachers, school heads and identified
DepEd region and division non-teaching personnel as the opening of School Year 2020-
2021 approaches.

For parents, the Department launched the ‘Gabay Bahay: An Online Parenting Series’
which is a weekly online learning activity that aims to engage with parents in protecting
the health, safety and well-being of their children.

This is in line with the Department’s goal in protecting and fulfilling the rights of a child
anchored on the Convention on the Rights of Children especially in times where
community quarantine is currently imposed in the country.

With the emergence of the pandemic, the task to educate students has become more
challenging because schools are temporarily halted and the DepEd saw that parents
could be vital in fulfilling the learning continuity.

As implementing partners of the online parenting series, Save the Children prepared the
modules being discussed in the sessions while Globe Telecom Inc. provides resource
persons. This online activity started last July 15 and will air its last episode on August
19. It is streamed live every Wednesday, 4PM in DepEd Philippines Facebook Page.

For secondary teachers, school heads and identified DepEd region and division non-
teaching personnel, online trainings on the provision of remote Psychological First Aid
(PFA) for learners using the Supporting, Enabling and Empowering Students (SEES)
Manual, supplemental online and self-guided PFA modules, and guidance notes have
been launched on July 21, 2020 and is set to culminate on July 30, 2020.

“As we enter a new school year, our learners in the secondary level are about to make
another series of adjustments that might become stressful for them. This public health
emergency has disrupted their lives as much as it severely impacted ours,” Director
Ronilda Co of DepEd Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Services (DRRMS).

The objective of the program is to prepare the teachers, identified DepEd non-teaching
personnel and parents in monitoring themselves, look after their wellness and enable
them to fulfill their respective duties and responsibilities in the education continuity.

The sessions are held through online streaming where participants are clustered by
regional groups. Cluster 1 includes school heads of secondary schools and identified
DepEd region and division non-teaching personnel from all regions. The remaining 5
clusters include secondary school teachers of all regions.

A training on Remote Psychosocial Support (PSS) through Play for Elementary

Learners will also be conducted for elementary school teachers, school heads and
identified DepEd division non-teaching personnel on August 3-6, 2020.
The training will revolve on how to utilize the Teacher’s Activity Guide on Psychosocial
Support through Play developed by Unilab Foundation Inc through their Heads Up
Project. Unilab Foundation Inc has been one of DepEd’s partner in providing PSS
intervention to elementary learners affected by disasters since 2017.

The Bureau of Human Resource and Organizational Development (BHROD) Employee

Welfare Division (EWD) and DRRMS with the assistance of the National Education
Academy of the Philippines (NEAP) also provides psychosocial support and training on
wellness to teachers and non-teaching personnel.

Putting priority on the promotion and protection of their mental health and general
welfare in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, the provisions of psychosocial support
tackles on validating and normalizing feelings, identifying common and extreme stress
reactions, identifying their current needs, and expressing their needs on others.

“It shall also guide the participants to practice positive coping strategies like setting up
routines and work-from-home practices, arts-based coping strategies, and mindfulness
meditation. DepEd personnel who are not reached by this session shall be provided
with psychosocial support by the region or division through alternative means like phone
calls or face-to-face subject to physical distancing measures and localized preventive
measures,” DRRMS noted.

Delivered asynchronously online through learning playlists, wellness training consists of

introductory course videos, livestreamed videos from Stronger from Home and Wellness
Check, and discussion questions.

The Psychosocial Support and Training on Wellness will run until September 11 with
topics that include self-care, intellectual and financial wellness, environmental wellness,
social and vocational wellness and other dimensions of wellness which will be led by
professionals in psychosocial support.****

The emergence of Coronavirus (COVID-19) creates an unparalleled impact on humanity. The

pandemic causes a phenomenal crisis that spread like wildfire and led to the deaths of millions of
people all over the world. One of the affected sectors of our society is education resulting in the
closure of the operation of educational institutions.1 The sudden change in the educational
system pressured schools to formulate a teaching-learning program that will meet the
requirement of the new normal classroom setting. Schools introduced teaching methodologies
and approaches to adopt with the needs of the students in online classes. The previous
correspondence stated that with these changes educators need to be provided with psychosocial
supports.2 The shifting of educational processes also made school authorities to discover the
students’ psychosocial needs that have to be addressed immediately. Several studies claim the
Coronavirus pandemic prompted students to face multifaceted pressures such as: understanding
the conceptual framework of online learning, academic burdens and workloads, limited
interaction with other students and boredom.3 A recent study conducted in China, identified that
psychosocial anguish and depression during social isolation and quarantine are the most common
mental health issues that many young adolescents experienced during the pandemic.
Psychosocial and behavioral issues such as inattentiveness, insecurities, lack of focus and fear
for queries about the Coronavirus were developed among children and adolescence ages 3–18
during the pandemic. The paper also cited, that children and adolescents living in areas with
widespread Covid-19 cases can easily develop serious fear and anxiety.4 In another study,
comprising of 564 Chinese junior high school students, revealed the Covid-19 pandemic has a
significant impact on the students’ psychological and mental health,5 education and their day to
day routines.6 The World Health Organization (WHO) declares that in 2012, 5.6 million students
enrolled in online education who belong to low-income families and minority groups in the USA
are more at risk for psychological health issues.7
The current findings on the condition of students’ emotional health and well-being in online
classes are clear indications that the existence of the psychosocial needs have to be addressed
through psychosocial support. As valuable stakeholders, the safety and welfare of the students
must be the priority of the schools, especially during this pandemic. Studies show that an online
class supported by full array of psychosocial supports in the form of student services such as:
enrichment and remediation tutorial, academic advising, guidance and counseling program,
fitness and wellness resources, spiritual formation activities and faculty–student consultation can
result to very satisfactory performance of the students.8