Invest or regret: A paper discussing the struggles of teachers in blended learning set-up

By: MARIbETH V. JOTINg,

The COVID-19 pandemic has radically changed people’s lives. This health crisis has wreaked havoc on the Philippines’ educational landscape; schools have been closed, new instructional structures have been implemented, and students and teachers must adapt to these changes. According to a UNICEF report in 2020, 214 million students from pre-primary to secondary school in 23 countries have missed at least three-quarters of their classes since March 2020. Due to school closures, 168 million students in 14 nations lost almost all of their classroom instruction time.In the Philippine setting, concerns and challenges of students are heavily reported on various platforms, particularly social media, yet behind the issues of students are also struggling teachers. With this, this paper will provide an insight into the challenges that educators face around the country.

To contextualize, the Philippines is one of the few countries that was unable to open schools after a year of the pandemic and to this date, only schools in low risk areas were opened. With almost two years of implementation of blended learning in the entire country, teachers have struggled to the demand of this set-up. They redirected their traditional way of teaching to this new set-up which leads us to the first struggle of teachers, the inability of some teachers to navigate online learning platforms. Since blended learning requires teachers to mix both traditional and online-based instructions, teachers needs to familiarize themselves with different platforms and medium to use. Teachers have been rushing converting their instructional materials online, they need to lay-out everything and prepare the lesson using multiple platforms and this consume more than three days for a 30-45 lesson preparation (Chuah and Mohamad, 2020). Noting the fact that the population of teachers include those beyond 50 years old, this is really a challenge.

Aside from the technologically savvy issues faced by teachers, n ot all teachers have the resources necessary to implement this blended learning method. Not all teachers have access to the internet at home, not all have laptops (though it’s ideal if they acquire them from the government), and not all have the ability to stay on these gadgets for lengthy stretches of time. Teachers have struggled to secure resources since the new set-up demands all of this, and some would still prefer to travel directly to communities, particularly those schools serving the country’s hinterlands. However, certain Department of Education Division Offices, like as this one in Antique, employ cable channels and radio frequencies to provide recorded teachings to students. This may be time demanding, but teachers are spending all hours of the day and night to solve these issues for the sake of students learning.

The distribution of modules is another perceived challenge for teachers in blended learning. Teachers must deliver modules of their students on top of their written reports, lesson plans, and other forms to accomplish. This is a significant added responsibility for teachers, particularly those in large schools who are responsible for multiple sections. Apart from that, they are also in charge of collecting and disinfecting these modules. The strain is compounded by a lack of facilities such as risograph machines, printers, and even bond paper shortages.

Overall, it boils down to how unprepared our government is to implement blended learning, and there is no mechanism in place to address the concerns and challenges that teachers and students encounter. These are just three of the primary challenges; there are many more that have yet to be addressed. The educational system is critical for the country’s future; it will either make or break the nation’s future. If malls can open gradually, why can’t schools? The government and other stakeholders should invest more to address the challenges in this new set-up of education. In the midst of the pandemic, all we need is a contingency plan, a willingness to take risks, and a comprehensive mechanism to provide quality, equitable, and inclusive education.( Contributed article)