Introduction

When pandemic hit almost all parts of the world, Philippines is one of the many countries
that was greatly affected. The education sector faced the worst struggle in the past two years.
While schools were temporarily closed, teachers and students were forced to adhere to all health
and safety protocols by which schools became inaccessible and off-limits to everyone. The
Department of Education (DepEd) introduced the Basic Education- Learning Continuity Plan (BE-
LCP) as an answer to the different problems brought by the pandemic. One of the main highlights
of this plan is the distance learning which were introduced to both public and private sectors that
include the different modalities of learning that the schools may adopt: modular learning, online
learning, television/ radio-based instruction and blended learning (online and modular modality).
For the past two school years, Cesar Oroña Elementary School used the modular distance
learning to ensure the continuity in learning. The school, just like most of the schools nationwide,
has faced a lot of challenges while adopting the said modality. One of these is the increased
number of enrollment that led to the insufficient number of modules for School Years 2020-2021
and 2021-2022. The teachers provided own copies of the needed number of modules to make
sure that the students are receiving 1:1 copy. Since teaching is distant, both learning and
assessment of students were done in distant too. Teachers had a hard time assessing the
students because aside from they are not inside the classroom, the class size is too big to track.
Learning became at risk. There are still learners who either cannot read or struggling to read.
Reading also became one of the main concerns as teachers cannot apply reading interventions
easily compared during the face-to-face classes. There are still learners from Kindergarten who
had hard time in arithmetic- be in writing and counting. Learners’ performance can only be
assessed through their written outputs which in some cases, doubtful since there are students who
rely on the answers given to them by their guardians and parents. Learning then became
questionable. In facing these challenges, teachers still made different interventions and actions to
at least resolve these problems. One of these is conducting frequent “Online Kumustahan” in
which a video call between the learners and teachers were done through the help of the parents.
Home visitations for learners who needed extra academic support were also done by each class
advisers to ensure that they feel learning is still possible despite the setup.
To aim for quality education and strive for academic excellence will always be the school’s
mantra. Supporting DepEd’s “Education for All” by making sure that learners in any race, age, and
gender have free access to quality education, is being mandated in Cesar Oroña Elementary
School. Pandemic is temporary, but learning is continuous. Now that the schools are slowly
opening the traditional face-to-face classes, COES will continue to serve and cater the learners’
diverse needs.