By Apolline Estrella, Bea Panlaqui, C Justice Rigos, and Princess Ventures
Physical classes in the Philippines have been suspended since March 2020 due to the ever-increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country, forcing schools to make the major transition to a new mode of education: distance learning. As the academic year continues on for over 24 million Filipino learners, multiple issues faced by students and teachers alike have only become increasingly evident, highlighting the need for a drastic change in the current educational system.
As defined by the Department of Education (DepEd), remote or distance learning is the method of teaching and learning used in lieu of face-to-face delivery. Three different learning delivery modes are currently being implemented to address the needs of each student. The Commission on Higher Education enumerates these kinds of “flexible learning”: offline flexible learning, online flexible learning, and blended flexible learning — a combination of offline and online approaches.
To facilitate remote learning for students who can access only offline flexible learning, educational institutions and local government units are required to distribute printed learning packets and flash drives with modules, both of which contain instructions on how parents or guardians can guide and supervise learners. DepEd also provides Self-Learning Modules that can be delivered via hardcopy modules, radio, or television. For online flexible learning, modules are given to students digitally through learning management systems (e.g. Moodle, Google Classroom, Edmodo), on which synchronous and asynchronous activities are also conducted.
Since this approach is heavily reliant on digital resources and devices, both the public and private sector are required to hand out free laptops, tablets, and WiFi gadgets to ensure that each student is equipped for remote learning. However, such initiatives are not enough to meet the needs of each learner. In a survey conducted by Rise For Education Alliance — UP Diliman (R4E UPD), 75 out of 2678 respondents still do not have internet access at home, and 514 students have difficulty loading videos and emails with slow internet connection. According to another survey done by DepEd, over 6.8 million expressed scarcity of devices needed for distance learning. It can be seen that with these varying modes of delivery, the lack of resources seems to be one of the greatest challenges that parents, students, and teachers have to face to make remote learning possible.
What remote learning requires
The need for appropriate resources for remote learning poses obstacles for both students and teachers nationwide. For one, the shift from physical to remote or online classes requires Filipinos to be highly dependent on internet connectivity. The Philippines’ average internet speed, however, is only 25.07 mbps for fixed broadband and 16.95 mbps for mobile. These numbers are significantly lower than the global averages 81.46 mbps and 34.51 mbps, with the Philippines lagging severely behind as the second slowest in Asia in terms of internet connection speed.
On top of these slow internet speeds, internet reliability still varies. Consumers may actually be experiencing internet connection much slower than the recorded average. In a survey conducted by Agham Youth National, although 1698 out of the 3602 respondents reported having average internet stability, 83.1% learners still said that internet interruptions hinder their studies. Majority of the aforementioned students shared that synchronous activities are most affected by their internet connection. These include navigating through online classroom management platforms, self-paced learning, submitting requirements, responding to emails, and participating in video conferences.
Despite only being able to provide snail-slow internet speeds, internet services in the Philippines remain overpriced, with an average price of $18.19 or P875.39 against the global average of $5.21 or P250.73. Alongside the issue of affordability, reliable internet connection is far from accessible to everyone. According to the 2019 National ICT Household Survey, only 18% of Filipino households had access to the internet before the pandemic. This alarming figure just shows that the country had not been prepared for the shift to remote learning as it still lacks proper ICT infrastructures for better internet connectivity.
Students and teachers also struggle with acquiring adequate devices for quality learning and teaching. Prior to the pandemic, many students who relied only on physical classes did not have computers, laptops, or smartphones that they would eventually need for online classes. As stated in the 2019 National ICT Survey, 21% of Filipino households did not use cell phones, and 70% of the respondents did not use computers before the start of the pandemic.
In the midst of a socio-economic crisis, the demands of remote learning had suddenly forced parents, guardians, students, and teachers to purchase gadgets and equipment needed for remote learning. In a report by R4E UPD, 63.7% of the respondents stated that their families or own financial state is being negatively affected by the pandemic. The University of the Philippines stated that a laptop computer with specifications suitable for distance learning costs at least P30,000. To afford such resources, students have needed to organize their own fundraising initiatives such as #PisoParaSaLaptop. There has also been an observed rise in the number of cases in which students have sold intimate photos and videos, and have even been sexually exploited, in exchange for gadgets. Even with all of these efforts, R4E UPD’s study found that about 24% of all respondents still have to share their gadgets with other people or go to computer rental shops. Now that remote learning heavily relies on these specific and expensive kinds of equipment, students have expressed that the lack of personal devices gravely impedes their education.
Tuition fees in a number of educational institutions have also remained unchanged due to the cost of distance learning, adding to the already increased expenses that students, specifically, have to deal with in this new mode of education. Schools and universities have had to re-budget their funds to assist the conversion of learning materials to self-learning modules. Such expenses have caused reductions in the salaries of academic workers and increased anxieties for parents or guardians who have lost their jobs because of the disastrous economic impacts of the pandemic.
The new learning set-up, on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, has not only induced financial hardships, but also challenges for physical and mental health as well. Learners have been experiencing eye strain, migraines, and muscle pain due to long school days sitting in front of a computer or mobile screen. Some have also reported to have been infected by the virus, or have other health risks that may worsen if they push through with remote learning. Due to the lack of mass testing in the country, other students are also concerned about physically distributed modules that may be contaminated.
Alongside these burdens, students have been wrestling with the added stress caused by the lack of a conducive environment where they can learn. According to R4E UPD’s findings, 48.47% of respondents do not have a quiet personal space to work in. Majority of them said that they have to share their study spaces with other family members while coping with background noise, limited internet connection, power outages, and even abusive families for some. Adding to these, learners have found it more difficult to fully participate in their classes due to the proliferation of stress, anxieties, and other mental health issues that have been aggravated by isolation, fatigue, and the uncertainty of events brought about by the pandemic and by individual socio-economic difficulties. Being away from their peers has also made it tougher for some to cope with the anxieties brought about by not being able to pass requirements on time and not being able to attend class. However, most students still enroll and continue with the burdensome remote learning situation as being left behind would further affect their mental health.
Heed the call
Due to skepticism on our readiness to resume schooling during a pandemic with an entirely new system of learning, the opening of this academic year had already been plagued with much criticism from the get-go. Members of organizations such as the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines and the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) raised calls early on for “Ligtas Balik Eskwela,” demanding the national government and DepEd for safe, accessible, and quality education for all in the pandemic. The academic year persisted, nonetheless. Students and teachers have had to scale towering uncertainties amidst a systemic status quo. Adapting to new modes of learning had proven to be difficult, leading to massive outcries from the academic community as new layers of challenges, such as the arrival of consecutive storms in the country, made teaching and learning close to impossible.
With no concrete plan in sight, many sought — and still seek — for an “Academic Freeze,” which denotes the suspension or cancellation of classes until, at least, the academe has fully prepared itself. This approach aims to provide the concerned population time to prepare according to the impositions of remote learning, adjust to the workload and physical and mental burdens, and, in light of the recent typhoons, spare time for students and teachers to recover from the onslaught of Rolly, Quinta, Siony, and Ulysses. Despite widespread clamor, however, DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) recently rejected calls from different student groups to temporarily suspend online classes to the dismay and disappointment of the public.
Others — university students and professors, in particular — ultimately called to end the semester as the months wore on, citing the lack of appropriate digital infrastructures in rural areas affecting accessibility, the heavy workload imposed upon both students and faculty, the compressed curriculum and the pressure to finish within the semester, the anxieties passed on over from the pandemic, and the recent calamities that bowled over the state of students and teachers nationwide. Ending the semester again entails giving ample time for students and faculty to recover from the recent typhoons and sufficiently plan for the coming semesters with the specific acknowledgement that the current educational set-up simply does not work. This call thus also comes with the demand for a better, more thorough, and more appropriate educational system that ensures that no student is left behind and the call to demand accountability for the government’s inaction and irresponsibility.
In the long run
At the end of the line, the failures we have witnessed from the previous semester all point to deficiencies in the current educational system that had been haphazardly constructed and forced upon us in the midst of a national crisis. Students and teachers alike grapple with the uncertainty of day-to-day life while still attempting to carve out an education. The lack of appropriate digital infrastructures, unexpected power outages, intermittent Internet connection, unfavorable working environments, and the accompanying physical and mental burdens that come with the present-day remote learning set-up are paired with the recent arrival of multiple devastating typhoons in the country and a most sluggish response to the pandemic.
Although academic breaks have helped give time to recuperate and recover from the heavy workload and the consecutive tragedies that have befallen the country, the problems that we face now will continue to materialize in the future if nothing will change for the long-term. Systemic deficiencies warrant systemic solutions. Unless the current foundational issues of the implemented mode of education are addressed and remoulded into something more appropriate and accessible for the majority, the uneven educational landscape that we observe now will simply continue to persist.
Multiple issues must be dealt with immediately for this to happen. To start with, administrative bodies must heed the call of both students and professors to be lenient with the current educational set-up by institutionalizing academic breaks for this mode of learning, and end the semester for universities calling to do so. This gives teachers, academic workers, and educational institutes sufficient time to craft more humane and appropriate curricula for the following semester without the added time pressure of wrapping up the current sem. This also gives students and teachers more time to recover from the ravages of the recent typhoons, the physical and mental burdens passed on from the previous semester, and the ever-mounting problems that we have had to deal with due to the inefficient governmental response to the pandemic.
The call for free education must also resound more strongly in these times. Subsidies and the necessary materials, such as laptops, modules, and smartphones, should be provided or at least lent to students in need. Aside from subsidization, funds for the fortification of the country’s digital infrastructures should also be sufficiently allocated. Simply giving Internet allowances or gadgets is not enough; without a stable signal and fast, affordable Internet connection, remote learning will be severely hampered. Fortifying our digital infrastructures is of principal importance in ensuring that everyone is able to communicate and participate in classes effectively, given that the mode of learning has completely shifted to the online.
The different social, financial, and geophysical contexts of students and teachers should also be taken into consideration. Power outages and intermittent Internet connection can mean that some students may not be able to attend synchronous classes, take exams, or submit their requirements on time. As such, deadlines should be more lax and synchronous sessions should not be absolutely required to facilitate learning.
All in all, these suggestions all point to the need for a more humane educational system that is appropriate for the present social climate and accessible to everyone in order to deliver quality education to this generation of Filipinos. Students, teachers, and academic workers deserve no less even in these turbulent times, especially in the face of a burgeoning socio-economic crisis. To this end, the current failed remote learning set-up must be rehashed into a humane, accessible, and appropriate educational system for all.
In the name of science
Addressing the issues of the current failed educational set-up is of utmost importance especially to the field of science and technology. On a broad scope, a stable, accessible, and adequate educational foundation in STEM is necessary to lay down the basic foundations for further work as a scientist, researcher, or engineer in the Philippines. Financial constraints, such as additional laboratory fees and other relevant equipment, as well as a general lack of support and funding from the government, have previously made it so that only around 0.97% of higher education enrollees took up the natural sciences, 13.2% took up engineering and technology, while only 0.38% took up mathematics in A.Y. 2018–2019.
Remote learning poses a different set of obstacles, such as how experiential activities, hands-on laboratory work, and fieldwork can be properly translated and co-opted into the online. The issue with sufficient funding and proper support, however, still remains the same. If quality education were made more affordable and accessible for all, it follows that a larger proportion of students may choose to take up science and technology as a possible career path, leading to a rise in manpower for the dwindling local S&T sector.
This must, of course, go hand-in-hand with national industrialization to provide industries that can properly absorb S&T professionals and encourage them to stay in the Philippines instead of being forced to go abroad for work opportunities that a de-industrialized country simply cannot provide them with. This will also eventually help produce the specialized scientific equipment needed to conduct, expand, and develop research locally without having to rely on foreign multinational companies. All of these, which require sufficient funding from the government for both the educational sector and the field of science and technology, help provide more opportunities for scientists, researchers, and engineers in the Philippines, ramp up their productivity, and galvanize the stagnating S&T sector towards the production of new research and technology that is appropriate for and answers the needs of the many instead of the profit-oriented interests of a few.
Forging ahead
Education is, of course, multisectoral and multifactorial. It is defined by many aspects of society and, in turn, affects and shapes many others. As more and more issues continue to surface, it has only become more and more apparent that, despite its fundamental nature and its multifaceted importance, quality education is a right that Filipinos still, sadly, have to continue to fight for to ensure that no one gets left behind. Unless the underlying system is remoulded into one that allows every person to genuinely pursue their rights to free and quality education, we will continue to suffer from a vicious cycle of injustice and inequality. For us to pursue lasting solutions, we must then target the root of the problem, which requires intricate and vested collaborations between all stakeholders: the government, the private sector, and the people.
Remaking the current educational system into a humane, accessible, and appropriate one is a responsibility that we all share, but it still remains a responsibility that is most expected to be made possible by the people in power. The struggle for free and quality education for all, then, also necessitates calling for accountability from the people who have let this situation happen in the first place. If a quicker and more efficient response to the pandemic had happened; if a speedy and coordinated national response to the recent typhoons had been conducted; if the self-interests of a vested few had not stood in the way of the overall welfare of the Filipino citizens, the national studentry would not have been struggling to begin with and millions of lives would not have been at stake.
That education is a right is an unfailing truth; in this case, calling for our rights to free and quality education must go alongside calling for a leadership that will heed the call of its constituents and fulfill its responsibilities to genuinely serve the Filipino people especially in our time of need.
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REFERENCES
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