By Laraine G.Fernando, Teacher III, Palayan City NHS

The pandemic has revealed to each of us our own strengths and flaws. It is still doing so,
as we adjust to the conceivable best of our abilities. It has been a trying time as different aspects
of our lives struggle to find a stable footing against the worldwide shock of this devastating
phenomenon. As such, the internet is facilitating an unprecedented number of activities as
businesses, schools, government facilities, and different organizations turn to online platforms
to address the needs of their services’ recipients.
Technology has undeniably compelled us to rethink how education can be delivered with

more ease and convenience, and it is at this point that we must be compelled to rethink and re-
evaluate the quality of education being provided amid the COVID-19 pandemic. We must first

identify the values we hold dear or the values we ought to prioritize above all else. The current
situation which sees tension between different roles in the government – e.g. lawmakers against
the president, the president against some government officials – causes friction and that alone
causes doubts and anxieties to arise.

By identifying values that we must embody through education, we can eliminate future
issues that is centered on the difference in the concerns of each societal member. This step
towards improving the quality of education first and foremost should look at the requirements
and responsibilities a student is expected to fulfill. Through the activities students immerse
themselves with, the outcome of such should project what we as a people strive for ourselves to
be, that is to be law-abiding citizens, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. Students must be
trained from a young age to utilize their critical thinking by applying theories to real-life situations
for them to hone their decision-making skills and to enable them to act through their own
maxims.

It can be challenging to encourage students to participate wholeheartedly in activities
against the convenience offered by digital platforms and the influence of social media. For this
to be addressed, each person has a different role to fulfill: the community must facilitate the
proper management of learning resources, the parents must ensure the development of efficient
study habits while the teacher must prompt students’ engagement in learning, and the students
themselves must trust not only the people helping them learn but their own selves as well.
The quality of education in the Philippines had seen better days when Filipino students’
reading comprehension and mathematical abilities were no less than the average. But nowadays,
prevalent is the attitude in students towards studying just for the sake of studying when what
should have been inculcated in each of us – yes, even those who are no longer students but
instead learners in life – is the eagerness to learn for the betterment of our quality of lives, as a
solution to our problems, and to honor the sacrifices of our forefathers who fought for the rights
and privileges we now enjoy. There is no quick solution to all our struggles today, but it is

important to stretch our backs and fulfill our roles in society properly to ensure that tomorrow is
a step towards a better version of ourselves.