The Survival Student Amidst The Pandemic Chaos
I was brought up to believe that being excellent all the time in education and finishing it first is the most ideal key to having a stable job for a living in the future. However, inevitable vicissitudes could really be mind-blowing just like when the Covid-19 pandemic blew up in every country across the world. One of the most that have been affected by this pandemic is the schooling system. According to the undersecretary of the Philippine Statistics Authority, Dennis Mapa, the youth employment rate as of July 2020 is 77.6 percent. As of July 2021 this year, the youth employment rate has increased to 84.6 percent while no one seems to care about this. Though there has been a panacea to not push through the academic freeze, the learning modalities of various educational institutions in the midst of the pandemic have emerged into the-so-called terms such as online class, modular, blended learning, synchronous, and asynchronous sessions. We all know what these terms mean, which are those who conduct classes via Google Meet or Zoom, there are also those who opt to study on their own through the instructional materials, and a combination of these two learning methods are also not new to the students batch 2020-2021 and up until now. Is it still worth it to be a top-performing student during these times? You may think so, it's a yes. But in reality, we cannot deny anymore that the students who said that learning today is worth it are ninety-seven percent pure hypocrisy, lies, and pretension.
Learning has been expensive. Not all students are fortunate to have their own gadgets and stable internet to cope with the online setup of learning today which is the only way to get in touch with the teachers or professors. This has been one of the most common reasons why the youth employment rate has increased to 84.6 percent this year based on the survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority. This just actually means that the youth today do not find learning worthy to spend time with if they know that their family is in danger of hunger and health security amidst this pandemic crisis. Isn’t it obvious that as time goes by, the cycle of the unfortunate Filipino students is just repeating like that which might result in unfinished education? That’s the reason why our country is not ameliorating because those Filipino students before are just remaining to be employees.
Learning has been more like compliance. Based on the study conducted by the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the majority of the Filipino students had a reading proficiency level equivalent to that in the first years of primary school, with 27% of the students still at the level where they can only “match single words to an image of a familiar object or concept.” This just simply indicates that there is no more retained learning happening in the students nowadays. Isn’t it?
Learning has been a fiasco. Aside from the financial scarcity and dissatisfaction of the learning modalities we have today, students in the midst of the Covid-19 add the stress of where they can get their sources for their daily needs and expenses which cripples their minds about the survival state they have in each day. We cannot blame the students who are not happy in learning right now due to the situation we have like this. What's more, if they are unlucky to their professors who do not even care about being considerate and understanding to their students who experience this life, it would really be a fiasco on their minds. According to Dr. Cornelio Banaag Jr., the professor of Emeritus, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of the Philippines- Philippine General Hospital (UP-PGH), 10 out of 20 percent of adolescents estimated are now already suffering from various mental disorders from ages 14 to 24 years old. The most common root of the mental disorders faced by the youth today is related to uncertainty and isolation. If the students or the children today are already experiencing it in their homes, what more if this is getting worse by being neglected and left behind at school by their inconsiderate teachers?
If you’d been in the shoes of any student during the pandemic right now, how would you feel and face the frustration of being torn about prioritizing the studies or the sources for daily survival needs? Is it still worth it to have the kinds of progress we still have now in our education system if most of the students today have something that cripples their mind and soul? Lucky for those who are just on their safe homes who are not worrying about what would it be for tomorrow’s survival again.
Ph. D. Maps, Dennis. “Unemployment Rate in July 2021 is estimated at 6.9 percent.” Philippine Statistics Authority, Labor and Employment, Sept. 7, 2021, https://psa.gov.ph/content/unemployment-rate-july-2021-estimated-69-percent#:~:text=j.,84.6%20percent%20in%20July%202021.
Balinbin, Arjay. "Filipino Students Falling Behind In Reading, Writing Levels in Southeast Asia." BusinessWorld, Deceber 3, 2020, https://www.bworldonline.com/filipino-students-falling-behind-in-reading-writing-levels-in-southeast-asia/
Visco, Rory. “Covid-19 related mental health issues growing among the youth.” BusinessMirror, October 13, 2021, https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/10/13/covid-19-related-mental-health-issues-growing-among-the-youth/
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Chosen topic: Online, Flexible and Blended Learning
