EDITORIAL - Teachers and education recovery

World Teachers’ Day is celebrated today as the Philippines is preparing a pilot test of face-to-face classes in 120 private and public schools located in areas with low COVID infection risks.

All regions in the country now have COVID cases, with the highly infectious Delta the dominant variant of concern. With impressive dedication and courage, the country’s teachers have faced the unprecedented challenges posed to education by the pandemic.

The teachers have innovated and adopted to the pandemic normal. They have been at the forefront of efforts to encourage parents to enroll their children so that no student is left behind even in these difficult times. Many have grappled with increased workloads and double shifts while honing newly acquired skills for blended learning.

While the national and local governments as well as donors from the private sector have provided the needed gadgets for distance learning, many teachers have also had to fork out their own money for additional or better equipment. Teachers’ groups say some of their members have had to pay for the production of learning modules out of their own pockets.

Already working under stressful conditions, it is also not uncommon for teachers to find themselves needing to provide emotional counseling to students, who have been restricted to their homes since the start of the lockdowns in March last year.

As the pandemic continues its rampage, greater investments are needed in teachers’ professional development, with special focus on new learning modes, as well as in their health and occupational safety as they continue to confront the challenges of education during this unprecedented crisis.

With tentative steps being taken to resume in-person classes, teachers will need to be prioritized in vaccination even as the inoculation of minors is set to begin. As this year’s theme for World Teachers’ Day declares, in the time of COVID, teachers are at the heart of education recovery.