EDITORIAL - Flexible learning can’t be helped... for now

There is no easy solution to making sure our students get their education during the pandemic. While we want them to not fall behind in their education, and emerge as capable citizens who will one day run the country, we also want to keep them away from COVID-19 risks.

This is why the government has resorted to things like online instructions, modules, and the like, during the pandemic.

Because there is still no end in sight to this current health crisis keeping our students away from schools, the Commission on Higher Education recently announced that flexible education will be here to stay.

"The Commission has adopted a policy that flexible learning will continue in the school year 2021 and thereafter," CHED Chairman Prospero de Vera was quoted as saying.

However, there were those who immediately raised howls of protest, prompting De Vera to clarify that flexible learning isn’t exclusive to online learning, but a combination of digital and non-digital means of learning.

"When you say flexible learning, you mix and match the available options depending on the situation of students, teachers, connectivity, health situation on the ground," De Vera said.

News and social media doesn’t run out of stories about our current system. Many students are cut-off in the middle of class by poor internet connection, modules don’t reach those who need to answer or correct them. Then rumors that, at least in the case of pupils, it’s their parents actually answering their modules for them.

When it comes to learning, nothing really beats face-to-face classes. It’s not just about what is being taught, it’s also about the experience of being with others, it’s about the bonds that are formed, the lessons that can never be learned in front of a laptop screen or from the cold pages of a module.

But we also know the situation on the ground. Bringing back face-to-face classes, especially at this time, will also bring in its own problems and challenges.

Many schools are not ready to open yet, or cannot operate with limited students. Some sectors will have to go into full operation to support these schools, including the public transport sector. Then the sheer number of students going to school again will run the risk of becoming a super-spreader event.

We all want our students to go back to schools, but until we are sure that the threat of COVID-19 is down to a manageable level and the risk of community transmission is gone, flexible learning is here to stay.