Sufficient, but not that efficient

     According to Fazilah Idris, “Education means a change in man's conduct of life. It means the upgrading of a man's ability to choose the best alternative available in any circumstance he faces. It means the development of the person to prepare him to adopt the best approach to a problem at any given time” yet, with the quality of education amidst the pandemic, how can we, students, achieve that level of education? If I were to coin the quality of education from a learner's point of view with two years of experience under this system, I would describe it as; sufficient but not that efficient. 

 Before anything else, it is understandable that the Department of Education implemented this system of learning for they are regarding the educators and learners safety, it may not be the best, but as I’ve said, it is sufficient. Regardless, as a learner, it is inevitable that I hold complaints and have seen flaws of learning under this system. The quality of learning under this system is inconsistent, student and teacher interaction is scarce in some subject classes and online classes are conducted poorly or adequately due to technical problems or the approach of teaching. Ideally, it is stated by an instructional designer and online instructor at Granite State College in New Hampshire, Steve Covello, that “small is best” when conducting an online class. An effective online class should be between twelve to fifteen students or a small handful an educator can handle to diagnose and track student learning and differentiate instruction in response to student needs. When lockdowns and heightened quarantines are implemented, the schedule of passing and giving of modules is changed as well as the chosen modality of the student, this affects the rhythm of focus and productivity of students causing it to break because of a disruption of routine adapted, in result, the process of establishing a solid and effective routine that enhances focus, productivity, as well as creativity, is repeated. Calamities also arise problems regarding the stability of wifi signal, power interruption, and different problems or conditions that may occur that affect the student's execution of completing his/her SLM’s. 

    Students are given a batch of Modules or Student Learning Materials to be completed under a week to be replaced with another batch that also should be completed in one week. In a batch of SLM's (Student Learning Material), two modules are given in each subject with a variety of tasks including performance tasks such as a video presentation, slogan poster, research work, etc. and a Thematic assessment or output given by the near end of a quarter along with a batch of modules to accomplish that are time-consuming considering the amount of SLM’s (Student Learning Material) given with a limited amount of time for execution and completion. In one week with all the SLM’s to answer it is not hard to imagine that some students stay up until late just to finish tasks, neglecting their mental, physical or emotional health, causing irritation, weariness, stress, and pressure to pile up that leads to breakdowns. In one week, if we were to compare the amount of time spent in accomplishing SLM’s and the number of times students care for themselves and spend quality time with their family on a double-pan balance scale, which do you think would rise? The fact that the passing and receiving of modules is a continuous and repetitive cycle with only two breaks (Semester break and Christmas break) is exhausting for students, regular breaks or mental health breaks help students prevent study fatigue and re-train or re-fresh the brain to focus on tasks at hand, yet lack of response to students mental health is upsetting. Amidst the flaws of the system, the system does have benefits, such as gaining independence in learning, being able to hone good study habits, fix bad study habits, enhance flexibility in time, and learn concepts and topics at own pace, yet with the way the system is being implemented overshadows these benefits not allowing distance learning to be as efficient as I see it to be.

    The learning and quality of education are sufficient, the modules or SLM’s (Student Learning Material) allow students to learn and grow, but grabbing students by their neck for the execution and completion of modules—giving limited time with the amount of SLM’s given, and the lack of mental breaks overshadows the efficiency of the learning growth of students this pandemic. The seemingly underdeveloped implementation of the system in the approach and method executed in teaching, as well as the lack of alternative solutions for minor and major problems also undermines the efficacy and benefits of the system. With a bit more developing and honing of the system, it will be able to be more sufficient and more efficient. Compared to last year, the quality of education is still quite inconsistent but it is slowly improving and developing, taking a step further to efficiency with an attempt to implement synchronous classes on some subjects, being a bit laxer with deadlines, and some educators maintaining consistent and constant words of encouragement and reminders of self-care to students.

References:

https://tinyurl.com/FazilahIdris

https://www.rappler.com/voices/imho/opinion-are-students-learning-during-pandemic

https://tinyurl.com/pandemiceducation