Teachers are considered the second mother of the learners during normal times as students spend a longer time inside the classrooms than their houses.
But the pandemic changed the entire teaching-learning process, the parents has a new role to play — the tutor cum teacher and mother.
The teachers role has also changed, they are now into soliciting job, asking friends, associates and able benefactors of reams of bond paper, printer and other school materials.
The lack of funds for the production of students’ modules has prompted teachers to solicit materials via text message or social media. They mustered the courage to solicit for lack of choice.
The Department of Education does not admit it fell short of its forecast for the modular learning process, resulting in the lack of funds.
Good thing, the classroom, and armchairs shortage is in the meantime shelved to give way to the new-normal of blended-learning as the health pandemic is not over yet. Meantime, Brigada Eskwela had to forego school repairs and the repainting mania as no one goes to school while the President says “no face-to-face schooling without the vaccine . . .”.
Yet, the budget for water, light, and other maintenance expense is lessened, which further means that the budget could be spent on the printing of modules. But the DepEd is silent about how they spend the maintenance fund.
If only the education department converts the maintenance fund for the printing of modules, teachers need not solicit, but rather concentrate on improving their video or teaching materials to make the teaching-learning more dynamic and more engaging despite the distance.
Worse, the DepEd did not consider the burden of those parents who are economically tied-up, yet trying to surpass the impacts of the pandemic from securing food for the table to the gadgets their children need up to the rigors of the tutorial works. Worse, most mothers are taking some time to refresh or even re-learn the basics to be able to help with their kids’ learning demands.
Had DepEd designed a localized approach in solving the problem, it could have allowed schools with no Covid-19 case to conduct face-to-face classes with health protocol ensured, and problems on module printing and internet connectivity should no longer be an issue.
Teachers should concentrate on their lesson plans, and not run after benefactors’ responses for their sent solicitation forms.
