June 9, 2021
By Geo Niko Villarta
Almost a year now since the Department of Education (DepEd) shifted to blended learning. Despite the hardships caused by the pandemic, Filipino students were forced to continue their academic goals through this learning modality, the only viable mode of learning for the education department to uphold.
DepEd defined blended learning as the fusion of online distance learning and in-person delivery of printed materials to homes of the learners who don’t have internet access.
As the current school year is set to end on July 11, let’s take a look at how blended learning worked out for students and teachers and what can be done to its lapses.
Internet Connection
The never-ending issue of slow internet speed has been the main problem in the country’s educational system.
As of February 2021, Ookla Speedtest ranked the Philippines' internet speed to 83rd for mobile internet and 92nd for fixed broadband among 140 countries.
Philippines's average download speed for February 2021 is 38.46 Mbps (fixed broadband) and 26.24 Mbps (mobile internet).
It’s a big leap from the 25.07 Mbps for fixed broadband and 16.95 Mbps for mobile internet recorded in July 2020 by Ookla.
According to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the increase in internet speed in the country can be attributed to the presence of DITO Telecommunications and to the president’s directive to the Local Government Units (LGU) to speed up the issuance of permits to build cellular towers.
Despite that, the internet speed is not much felt by the Filipino students.
The recent Social Weather Survey (SWS) in March 2021 states that only 39% of Filipino families with members that are studying through online distance learning have a strong internet connection.
On the other hand, 31% said they have a weak internet connection.
SWS also found out that pre-paid internet is more common in Visayas and Mindanao while postpaid options are more utilized in NCR and Luzon.
But don’t be blinded by the high internet speed. Amid the pandemic, the cost for such is what you need to think of.
According to Cable.co.uk, the average cost of broadband in the Philippines is $53.71 or approximately Php 2,560.00 and the cost per Mbps is $0.75.
With these values, many can’t still afford to have a stable internet connection, let alone “strong” ones.
With that major problem, students fail to participate in their online synchronous classes at times. Every now and then, internet service consumers suffer from technical difficulties.
Teachers also can’t provide the best educational experience for students as their internet connections lag.
Such problems contribute to the bad performance of students as some cannot participate in recitations and even during examinations. Worst, they cannot attend synchronous online classes making it hard for them to cope up with the lessons.
It is also one of the reasons why some students dropped their courses as they cannot participate and perform well because of this hindrance.
Dropout rate
In September 2020, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian claimed that at least 2.3 million students did not enroll for the current school year.
According to DepEd statistics, 27.7 million students from kindergarten to grade 12 enrolled in 2019.
And as of October 26, 2020, there were only 25.03 million enrollees for this school year.
DepEd’s enrollment went down to approximately 2.67 million or 9.63 %
Earlier this year, there was another claim of massive dropouts in public elementary and high schools.
In a statement dated January 28, 2021, DepEd denied the claims saying there was no massive dropout in the basic education for this school year. Students only shifted from one mode of learning to another or they transferred from one area to another.
According to them, data showed that students from cities went to provincial schools and those from private institutions went to public ones to continue their study.
Materials, Facilities, and Technology
In a 2020 study by Fernan Tupas and Marilyn Linas-Laguda entitled “Blended Learning – An Approach in the Philippine Basic Education Curriculum in the New Normal: A Review of Current Literature”, they stated that the scarcity of teaching materials is the common problem in the country even under the implementation of K-12.
As DepEd shifted to blended learning in October 2020, supplies were provided for the teachers. Other schools even used their Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE) to cater to the current needs of the situation.
DepEd also gave more than one million devices to 93% of the country's public schools.
The system used is at zero rates with telcos to assure that they can use it without data costs.
Some Local Government Units (LGUs) also donated gadgets to public schools to accommodate the needs of the students.
Such a move is of great help to teachers and students alike, but it is definitely not enough.
Another problem that sprouted from the use of new technologies to the country’s education system is how to make most, if not all, teachers Information and Communications Technology (ICT) competent.
Surely there are teachers, probably those who are nearing the retirement age, who cannot adapt quickly to the abrupt changes to learning modes. But DepEd was quick to adapt to the situation and deployed ICT professionals to conduct training and seminars even before the school year started.
So even before the SY 2020-2021 started, DepEd claimed that it has already trained more than 385,000 teachers on ICT-based teaching which is 45% of the teachers around the country.
The training and seminars included the hows of converting the modules into scripts and broadcasting the materials through radio and television which is quite helpful for students who do not have an internet connection at home.
An example would be the Radyo Eskwela sa Isabela of DepEd’s Isabela Division.
Teachers all over the province alternately made scripts, visuals, and acted as reporters of the day to aid the learning of students. A local radio station was tapped to broadcast the materials and LGUs donated to pay for the airtime.
Health of students…and teachers
Perhaps the most important aspect of this school year is about the overall health of the students and teachers.
Most of us are not as active as we were once. If not for the pandemic, we might be walking from one building of our schools to another or running in the school oval. This contributed highly to the students’ physical health. One’s diet is also in question and perhaps if students and their families can still afford to put a meal on their table thrice a day.
There were also reports of teachers contracting the virus where offices and schools were locked down for personnel who contracted the virus.
The mental health of students and teachers is also greatly affected. Claims of anxiety, stress, panic attacks, and reports about suicides are all over the internet.
What now?
With the internet speed in the country improving, the government must now assess if the cost of having broadband connections is affordable for the majority of Filipinos. With internet speed and its cost as the main problem of most students, if not addressed, we might be looking for more dropouts, a bigger punch not only to DepEd’s face but to the whole system.
The alternative ways of learning facilitated by DepEd is commendable. It offers more color to the students’ learning than that of the bland modules and lagging online classes.
Finally, DepEd must regularly look out for the mental health problems that students and teachers are voicing out loud on the internet and adopt policies to cater to the mental health needs of its stakeholders next school year.
The implementation of blended learning in the Philippines is not perfect. DepEd agrees. And it can do a lot better for the next school year. DepEd must listen to its critics and must be open to suggestions. This mode of learning might have many lapses but it will save the country’s educational system if such lapses are addressed properly. SYNC IN
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