Western Visayas COVID-19 Regional Recovery Plan

health protection measures while delivering essential services, functions and responsibilities, priority programs and projects to achieve the goals of basic education.

Abrupt closure of school year and cancellation of other scheduled activities. The postponement of school activities, scheduled trainings, workshops, and seminars, national assessment tests, on-site monitoring, evaluation, validation of programs and other activities reflected in the work plan were among the effects of the pandemic in basic education operations.

Official travels, sports events, researches and procurement process were cancelled. This caused delays in the submission of school reports and disruptions of workflow in the regional and division offices. Schools were forced to end the school year earlier with unfinished activities.

Graduating students and pupils were promoted to the next grade/year level without holding traditional end-of-school year rites.

Internet connectivity issues and other concerns of education work force. Majority of personnel were not able to perform their normal functions except for those identified as essential in the continuity of the overall performance of the agency, like finance and administration divisions. Poor internet connection further constrained the functioning of personnel who were forced to work from home and teachers who needed to comply with school reports. The unavailability of transportation caused difficulty to office personnel who needed to report to their respective offices assigned as skeletal workforce.

Difficulty in adopting distance and e-learning. In the case of Western Visayas, distance learning and e-learning were not the preferred choice of teaching and studying. The teachers were not technically, psychologically and educationally prepared to conduct online classes.

Weak and expensive internet connection continually beset the region even before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic due to limited infrastructure support in providing fast, cheap and reliable internet connection.

Most learners, particularly the poor and marginalized are not equipped technologically in shifting to online modes of learning. Families which could barely provide for their educational needs are further burdened by the high costs incurred in accessing internet facilities. In the Philippine context, acquiring good internet connection is not a basic need but rather a luxury to many who could not afford it.

During the quarantine period, the safety of teachers was a paramount concern which significantly affected work performance even in a work-from-home arrangement. Thus, teachers’ salaries and other benefits were released in advance to provide them financial support during the quarantine period.

Higher Education In higher education, class disruptions were also experienced brought about by the abrupt and early closure of colleges and universities.

Alternative learning strategies were undertaken. Like the learners in basic education, students of higher education institutions (HEIs) were not able to complete their school Western Visayas COVID-19 Regional Recovery Plan  Assessment of the Effect of COVID-19 in Region VI  30