by Xyzma Kryshel Bober
It has been more than a year of online learning. Somewhere in the middle of it, I stopped counting how many days it will take before we can go back to face-to-face classes. I bet a lot of students, teachers, and parents did too. We had a glimmer of hope then, now we have CHED chairman Prospero De Vera III saying that there is no going back to the traditional learning system, that flexible learning will be the norm.
From the very start, we knew the current situation is unconducive for learning because being at home meant dealing with chores, loud household members and barking dogs. But now, we are in a situation where some families do not even get to eat three times a day because of pandemic-induced layoffs, almost four million learners did not enroll in the SY 2020-2021, and COVID-19 cases continue to rise. This should have made it clear that being excellent, or being present in online class at the very least, is and should not be the priority. Despite this, the pandemic school year started.
As the year progressed, there were several calls for academic break and academic ease. These appeals came from both students and teachers because of the problems caused by calamities, technological difficulties (lack of gadgets, internet connection), and mental exhaustion. These appeals were apparently heard, because the academic year continued while having academic breaks in between to ‘solve these problems’.
When Typhoon Ulysses hit the country last November 2020, several people were affected throughout the country, forcing some students to fall behind on their studies.Yes, some schools granted an academic break for their students and employees to regroup and focus on their families and their needs. But do we really need a super typhoon before the administration recognizes the need for an academic break? Are the incessant calls of the students and teachers not enough to rethink and reconsider the academic plan we currently have in place?
More importantly, how much do academic breaks really help in this online set-up? Are teachers well-equipped to teach in this situation in the first place? Do students learn in this setup or do they only study to submit requirements, get a grade and convince themselves they are not being left behind? But are we really not left behind?
There are a multitude of reasons why academic breaks are not ideal. But mainly, it’s unsustainable because of the very nature of academic breaks -- they are not given due attention by the administration, instead they are always called for by the students. They are not as institutionalized as semestral breaks as they should be. That’s what will make them sustainable-- administrative legitimacy instead of being a knee-jerk reaction to the increasing number of emails teachers receive regarding intermittent internet connection, students getting sick, and appeals for deadline extensions.
So far, there was no academic break that was not preceded by the fatigue of the student population. You might say that’s not at all true because the UP System and other private schools scheduled an academic break during the Holy Week. But can we really say that the administrations stepped up and initiated this when there have been incessant calls for academic breaks for a year now?
We long for things to return to normal, but ‘normal’ won’t cut it. We live in the new normal, so it is only fitting that we come up with contemporary solutions to these present-day problems. The systems and knowledge we use and apply to our educational system today are already past their sell-by dates.
To avert more crises and struggles in this learning set up, which I think will bide a little longer than we wish it would, we must wrestle with the normal things that have obviously failed us. We have to sow the seeds of a better system.
Besides, if the government can allow casual travel to different places, why can’t our government allow students to return safely to school?
We can achieve #LigtasNaBalikEskwela if only our government sets its priority straight. Sadly, they almost never do. There has been inaction with regards to mass testing, enhanced contact tracing and other pandemic responses that resulted in the indefinite containment of the virus.
The pandemic continues to show no indication of substantial change and the overall morale and mental health of students also continue to decline. Students have been struggling with an endless cycle of submitting requirements without retaining any knowledge from them. The current learning system’s lack of camaraderie, available support systems and lack of resources have been forcing us further into the cycle, leaving the student-teacher population with little time to rest and focus on ourselves. Students and faculty members alike are forced to adapt to this set-up despite the obvious lack of planning.
With the current crisis that has been infecting and killing thousands of Filipinos, it has been difficult to continue as if everything is just as it was before, much less continue with schooling. We cannot turn a blind eye to the pandemic as it wreaks havoc on our emotional, mental, and physical well-being.
Despite seemingly having more time on our hands, it is unimaginable how painstakingly strenuous it is to accomplish a task even on a good day, so much so that I am running out of words to describe this adversity.
It is undeniable that academic breaks still give students a breather, a short gasp of air after a deep dive in academics. But does it really give students a legitimate break from requirements? If so, why do students still clamour for more? That is all an academic break does, for now, because academic breaks are also unsustainable.
Our entire setup of education is flawed. Online learning itself is a problem that not even a thousand academic breaks will solve.
We need adaptable school administrations and empathic officials if we truly want to achieve #LigtasNaBalikEskwela, one that proactively implements and initiates the staples of the new normal for education, for that is the only way the education system will truly bounce back from the pandemic.
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