Education during COVID-19 Era: Are Learners in a Less-Economically

Developed Country Ready for E-Learning? (Alipio, 2020)

The Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic remains a compelling issue
destabilizing not just the economy, but also the education in most parts of the world,
especially the less economically developed countries. As of April 25, 2020, 2,833,961
confirmed cases with 197,368 deaths were reported affecting 210 countries and
territories around the world and 2 international conveyances.
Geographical variation of case severity was observed with lesseconomically
developed countries anecdotally being reported to suffer the most due to poverty and
low testing capacity. The Philippines, one of the
less-economically developed countries, is a hotspot of COVID-19 case in Southeast
Asia with an accumulated total case of 7,192 and deaths of 477. Existing evidence
shows that areas in the country with low accumulated annual income had high
COVID-19 cases and high case fatality rates. With the current state of Philippine
government coupled with the crippling pandemic, notable impact on economy and
education has been observed. The recent adoption of K-12 program, the transition of
first K-12 completers
to college, and provision of free and inclusive education have challenged the
education governing bodies in the country even more.
In response to the rise in confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Philippines,
President Rodrigo Duterte suspended classes at all levels in Metro Manila initially on
March 9, 2020 and provided indefinite date of resumption. Concordant with the public
health emergency measures, the Department of Education issued guidelines
prohibiting public schools inareas with suspended classes from administering the final
examinations for students and instead compute the final grades of students for the
academic year based on their current academic standing. The department also advised
schools in areas without suspension to immediately administer final examinations
within that week on a "staggered basis" and for teachers and students to observe
social distancing measures.
Parallel to the Department of Education, the Commission on Higher Education
(CHED) advised other institutions of higher education in the Philippines in the
Philippines to implement distance education methods of learning for its classes, such
as the use of educational technology, to maximize the academic term despite the
suspensions. The commission has also advised other institutions of higher education
in the Philippines to implement distance education methods of learning for its classes,
such as the use of educational technology, to maximize the academic term despite the
suspensions. Several other public and private tertiary institutions implemented such
arrangements for its classes; however, several student groups appealed to CHED to
suspend mandatory online classes in consideration of the logistical limitations and
well-being of a majority of students.
With the ongoing surge of cases in the country, a possible alternative to
continue education while preventing potential infection spread, is electronic learning
(e-learning). E-learning has been a common delivery media for education in developed
countries. Several developing countries like the Philippines have attempted to embrace
the new learning space; however, financial and acceptance factors remain to be a
problem that would limit its potential use. While both the supply and demand for e-
11learning opportunities have risen in recent years, many professionals are beginning
to question whether students are prepared to be successful in an online learning
environment. After all, the demonstrated success of students in a conventional
education and training classroom may not be an adequate predictor of success in an
e-learning classroom. Drawn on the existing pandemic and potential shift to full e-
learning, this study has focused on the descriptive evaluation of readiness of higher
education Filipino students for e-learning.
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1. Is the given research problem important to a senior high school student

like you? Why?
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2. Was the proposed study well-justified by the researcher? Why do you think
so?
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3. How did the researcher provide justifications on the need to conduct the
study?
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4. What was the goal of the proposed study?
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5. If you were the researcher, what other justifications would you provide
aside from those given?
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