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ISDANG NALULUNOD: Student's Circumstances amidst Pandemic

- Kimberlie Anne S. Austria

In our childhood days, we can often hear the phrase "isdang nalulunod" that is used in local chants and corny jokes. Well, we all knew that fish only survives underwater, and but canit really be drowned with what's keeping it alive in the first place?

According to an article written by Alison Yang in 2021, fish are very capable of drowning in lowoxygen environments. But technically speaking, the correct term for what occurs wouldn't be "drowning. " What happens is closer to the act of suffocating, especially when changes are made in its environment. This stance is similar to what's happening now to students who are forced to a new environment, wherein learning depreciates, causing the loss of the supposed competencies acquired, causing students to drown on their own tank.

Students are meant to flourish, be flexible, and adapt wherever he is. This is emphasized in this pandemic, where studying is transitioned from face-to-face classes to online learning. From an ocean where fishes can freely swim, they are caught and placed into small tanks, and not every fish is able to adapt.

With the online set-up, the students are flooded with various activities that they mostly cannot understand how it will help them in the "reality" of life – the life after school, as elders say. University Business conducted a survey last June 2020 after school closes due to the rising cases of COVID-19. The results show that 75% of the 2500 college students respondents reported feeling more anxious or stressed due to online learning. In line with this, school closures have been associated with an increase in dropout rates and a deterioration in literacy. According to the World Bank, the number of children aged ten and below in low- and middle- income countries who are unable to read simple text has climbed from 53% prior to the pandemic to 70% today.

With this situation, what more can we do? Should we just standby and let our students drown in tons of activities without the actual learning? We can't expect a progressive society with competitive graduates if this continues. Teachers who understand students' situations are calling the government to open schools without compromising the students' health since this pandemic is nowhere near its end. We have to learn to swim but in an appropriate environment suitable for learners. This is the only way to address the suffocation of learning and make students dive deeper in clearer water where they can express their talents and abilities eradicating limits.

Living in Agony: The System’s Transition

- -Michelle F. Bengero

I always wonder how the world will look ten years after I was ten years old. A child full of dreams and questions. It mesmerized watching movies with a genre of the age of civilization and modernization. How airplanes are made, how robots can talk, how trashcan can segregate biodegradable to nonbiodegradable—fascinating. But as I walked one sunny afternoon —my dreams felt so far and impossible. Covid-19 strike, March 16, 2021, 2 confirmed cases. I was in the middle of cleaning chairs and having a good time with my classmates— first-year Bachelor of Secondary Education major in English— young and bold. bold. I am doing good at school, and I am a

straight Dean's list. I have good friends and an encouraging environment—life was perfect. Hearing the announcement about the class suspension made our hearts flatter because we thought that we could finally take a rest—the calm before the storm. I was delighted to hear that news, making plans with my friends, not knowing that the game of depression, anxiety, and confusion makes me ready to taste my own medicine. Life is hard now; memories from the past are like a dream that lasted in a very short span of my youthfulness. I take it hard. I suddenly stop living and making myself drown from the darkness and sadness of how my years have gone so fast in just a glimpse of an eye. I am coping, but now hearing news that the face-to-face will be possible maybe in the next year—made me feel so stuck, like an experiment that cannot do anything because I am tied with both of my hands and feet. I feel so incompetent, not ready, and subjected to failure. Life is hard now. Every choice we make can affect future generations capabilities, dreams, perspectives, and life. But we cannot control how the world will turn, and it is our responsibility to cope, live, and love the life we are living in.

ONLINE LEARNING EXPERIENCE

- -Ma, Mae Stephanie V, Torres

Due to the rise of Covid cases back in 2020, schools and universities in the Philippines decided to implement Online learning.

Online learning may not be a foreign concept to other countries, it may even be the common mode of teaching in some, but online learning is entirely foreign and new to the Philippines, education here is mostly conducted in a face-toface manner, but due to the pandemic face-to-face classes had to be canceled and so online distance. The new learning and teaching modality poses some problems, for me a student it was hard to adjust, it confusing and also anxiety inducing, it was totally different to what we are used to, and then you have problems such as; problems with the internet connection not having enough data, lack of the proper technology, distractions, etc. Both students and teachers suffer from these problems, especially teachers who are not as “tech savvy” as others are, students also suffer problems such as not having the motivation to learn, getting burned out and being overwhelmed due to the loads of work being dumped on them, and then you add the factor that they have other chores and stuff to do.

In the article Online Learning: Common Struggles for Diverse Learners by Jennifer Sullivan, she listed down five common struggles that students face in online learning. She lists down struggles in keeping track of time, struggle with motivation, struggle with being overwhelmed, and being burned out. Students are overwhelmed with their work, and exhaust themselves with finishing activities and passing them on time, and teachers are struggling on finding new ways to teach. Both parties suffer not just the other, students should find time to relax and unwind, inform the people in the house what time they have classes, find a quiet place with no distraction so that they can focus, and don't pile up work instead create a checklist and a schedule. Teachers on the other hand should be considerate about their students' situation. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have the right technology, instead compromise, give them enough time to accomplish task, don't pile activities and record the lectures for those students who are not

able to attend.

Communication, cooperation and understanding is the key and it is what we needed especially in these trying times.

COVID response: Failure of the administration and Legislators

- Allen , Quizada

The rate of Covid infection breaks record high, at 17,000+ last January 22, 2021; and this time, with the more virulent Delta variant according to Department of Health Organization.

Not surprisingly, the anxiety level of many people is at its highest. This is brought about by the fear of getting infected, and the uncertainty caused by disruptions in work and businesses. Scriptures teach us NOT TO WORRY. But we all know it is easier said than done.

We are running out of facilities to accommodate people with deceases. Social Media became an online cemetery wherein people are dying time to time, which is truly alarming that causes societal anxiety to everyone; thinking that we might get infected by the virus and end up dying because of lack of facilities in our public hospitals.

Let us admit that some people are getting infected by the virus because of their irresponsibility, but aside from that, we can ’t deny that there are people who got infected by the virus from their risky work, because there is no better option for them but to work for their family. That is a heart-breaking reality in country; when people are blaming the government for its faltered decisions; they are cursing people and force them to be quiet and practice no freedom of speech.

Making safe spaces or an isolation center is not a thing that we need to clap on. Making something for people during this pandemic is actually one of the bare minimum actions the government should provide. I have so much unhealthy though in mind but I feel like I'm not in the right stand to speak up about it. But then, since this is an opinion, I can say that the Philippine government is not giving its 100% focus on the pandemic.

People who are in seats are prioritizing their personal interest, taking advantage while the pandemic is at its peak. To the 12 senators who are in charge in law making, I don ’t think that they ’ ve done their jobs, they are not effective legislator; on my observation and based on what I’ ve experience during their term knowing that they are receiving their salaries consistently with or without pandemic. COVID patients ’ facilities must not be a problem in terms of financial necessities for the government to provide safe spaces for the patients if our taxes were regulated transparently. The service we are receiving from the government is not something we need to owe; those are not from their pockets.