West Visayas State University

College of Education
Graduate Studies

Resilient Schools versus COVID-19:

A Reflection on UPCED’s White Paper

By Alfonso M. Samillano Jr, PhD-CDV 1-A

Even without the emergence of a pandemic, schools “should be guided by three

principles, namely, compassion, inclusion, and innovation.” It is even more crucial and dire
when there is a health crisis and the health and safety of the stakeholders are at risk.

The pandemic has changed the ways of doing things in the academe. Academic and
administrative agenda which could have been sent through email in memo format were
discussed via Zoom extensively. The communication continuum took a pivotal role in this
exhaustive activity. The time for rest and being with family had become laden with push
notifications from Messenger chat groups and agency email. As a result, some faculty, and
students as well, developed anxiety and nomophobia or fear of notification badges on smart
phones.

The UPCED’s white paper provides strategies for these problems. Indeed, schools
must strengthen their guidance services to offer mental health programs. It is also necessary to
plan how information should be disseminated periodically in such ways that recipients can use
them strategically, and so they can avoid developing stress due to a barrage of information sent
by teachers or school officials at once. Schools must be compassionate indeed, acknowledging
the current situation that affects the mental health of everyone.

Moreover, it is true that when there is a change in the learning modality, the
curriculum design should also change to fit the demands of the current situation. At this point,
frequent monitoring of student progress is more important than ever. Considering the learning
pace and learning style of each student, the syllabus or curriculum guide must be tailored based
on the most immediate needs of the students. I agree with the paper that curricular and
assessment priorities must change. With this, we should design the curriculum with the
“learner in mind.” In our school, we focused on the “most essential learning competencies” and
developed learning materials that would enable the students to manifest their creativity at
home.

While DepEd opted for modular learning and CHED went for blended learning, it is
necessary that schools provide a variety of options and modalities in learning delivery. I believe
that when it comes to this, it is the student who chooses the modality depending on their
circumstances. It is a struggle for some teachers to multi-task or have their workload tripled,
but this is a compromise if we aim to develop a resilient educational system. In my case, I had
to download and print every single output that my students submitted through the learning
management system so I can get hold of them anywhere. Despite being adept at using mobile
technology, I chose to read student outputs on a printed copy to avoid eye strain caused by LED
or LCD. It was an additional expense for me but, except for those who opted for a printed
version of their outputs, I did not require my students especially those who are residing in very
remote areas to go downtown just to submit an output. Not now that habal-habal fares were
doubled.

But no matter how the schools create a healthy space for learning, whether face-to-
face or virtual, the program will not succeed without commitment of and collaboration with the
stakeholders, especially the parents. In this case, schools must empower the parents by
providing them support in terms of instructional guidance. Parents must be involved in this
program as they have become suddenly in charge with the education of their children at home.
However, not all parents have adequate time and space for tutoring their children as they are
also working from home. It is even more challenging when parents lose their jobs and they
cannot provide a gadget for their child which is a necessary tool for remote learning. Thus,
schools must also provide support to them in this aspect. In fact, some schools distributed
tablets to students, while others printed modules and sent them to students. This is a
commitment of both parties to continue the delivery of learning despite the challenges of the
situation.

Now, we have witnessed how devastating this pandemic is to us all. Our role as
educators, and as school administrators, is not only to ensure that learning continues but also
to find innovative ways to implement the new normal programs in ways that it can be beneficial
to everyone. By this time, schools have observed and gathered enough data from the
experience. Thus, it is necessary to use these data to develop new technology that would suit
the new normal education and thereby provide accessible education to everyone such that “no
child is left behind.”