Are we really ready for the end of online classes?
Published April 15, 9:33 PM
by James Curt Dela Vega
EDUCATION
It has been more than two years since face to face classes were suspended with regards to the outbreak of the Covid-19 and the Philippines has yet to be cleared of cases of it and the conduction of classes online via different platforms had been soaring and were treated as the “New normal”.
James Curt Dela Vega
Although this seemed to be working at first, the students, school staff, and some politicians are against this idea and have been pushing for the resumption of face-to-face classes for various reasons such as the students are not able to apply their learning hands-on and practicality dictates as well that due to financial constraints, most students are incapable of having the necessary equipment to participate and are held to be left behind.
​
This then leads to the high demand for certain personalities, celebrities, and even politicians shouting a call to bring back the traditional way of learning. However, in spite of the alert level going back to 1, some people are still concerned about the safety of their children as they go along with the resumption of physical classes.
This was then responded to with the government implementing various guidelines, protocols, and personal identification as to who is allowed and fit to attend the classes. The guideline indicates that the students shall not be allowed to attend the classes if they have comorbidities, unvaccinated and that the students shall not be allowed to stay for more than 4 hours a day inside the school and not spend more than thirty minutes of travel time.
However, even with these guidelines, people are still concerned about who is only allowed to attend such classes. Despite this fact, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), expects more Higher education institutes to resume face-to-face classes and are even claiming that in areas under alert level 1, it has been allowed to consume 100% classroom capacity. Although this has been said by CHED’s chairperson, Dr. J. Prospero E. De Vera III, most classes still undergo by using only 50% of the classroom capacity to observe the protocol of social distancing to avoid the spread of coronavirus.
The Adamson University abides by the resumption of classes via the process of hybrid learning or more known as “PhysiFlex” which intends to continue the procedure of online learning however it intends to increase the amount of limited face-to-face interactions.
Considering the above statements, the 3.68M cases of Covid-19 would still be deemed as a high number, however with the ongoing vaccinations being conducted in almost every part of the country, It is inevitable that things would start to bring back to the normal setup thus allowing the resumption of classes to be safe. But the question still remains, Are we really ready to bring back face-to-face classes?