ABSTRACT
This phenomenological-qualitative research was conducted to find out the experiences of staying-in and staying-out teachers in Modular Distance Learning towards service recognition recommendation in the District of Leon II for the school year 2021-2022. It was found out based on the information gathered during the in-depth interview with ten participants that most of the teachers were married who ages thirty years old and above. They were all assigned in a far-flung school with almost thirty-five kilometers away from the town which five of them were staying-in and 5 were staying-out. These teachers had varied experienced like downloading at home, downloading in learning resource portals, printing at night time, printing at home, involvement of parents, learning facilitators, parent’s participation, late submission of modules and observing safety health protocols were the experiences of staying-in and staying-out teachers in modular distance learning.
Keywords: Experience, Staying-in Teachers, Staying-out Teachers, Modular Distance Learning (MDL), Service Recognition, Recommendation
INTRODUCTION
The education systems here and abroad have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. And while we sometimes hear about the difficulties of parents and students with modular learning, teachers often have a fair share of experiences and challenges. Teachers must ensure that the quality of learning remains, even with the absence of face-to-face experiences.
Preparing lessons through printed modules during this pandemic is way more challenging than before since the concern is not just limited to making sure that the learning will be transferred to the learners, but also to making sure that this is actually delivered to them.
The role of our teachers in shaping the minds of the nation is, in itself, a sacrifice and an act of love, for it takes time, attention, and patience. They’ve doubled, maybe even tripled, or more this pandemic. Clearly, teachers have been seeking ways to continue the learning process of pupils, refusing to give up on their vocations.
The country's health crisis raises difficulties in teaching where teachers are part of the current normal education system. These problems have an effect on their success in the preparation of modules. There are times where teachers are stressful from time to time because of a lot of things to do. As a result, they are also withdrawing from group talks with their friends.
Just like with other districts in the Division of Iloilo, teachers in the district of Leon II also experienced different problems and difficulties in the implementation of modular distance learning in their respective schools. One of the major factors is the distance of school from the town proper and to the community. Teachers who were not residing to where the school is located are more affected with this situation than other stakeholders. Due to the distance of schools to their home and difficulty of the road they are going to pass through, there were teachers who preferred to stay overnight in school during weekdays even without face to face classes just to relatively deliver quality education in this time of pandemic. They stayed in school and worked even during night time just to prepare all the expected outputs in the implementation of the MDL. Most of these teachers are assigned to far flung schools with the distance of almost 35 kilometers from the town. And so, they prefer to stay than to go home.
With many possible areas to study, experiences of staying-in and staying-out teachers was chosen because the researcher wanted to know the problems and difficulties they have experienced in the implementation of Modular Distance Learning (MDL). Through this, one may know the different experiences they have encountered that could give an idea to other teachers in other schools in the district. The researcher also wanted to know how these experiences help them to cope with the expectations of the Department of Education (DepEd) amidst COVID-19 pandemic and for that they could be recommended for the service recognition that they have rendered all throughout.
The researcher once assigned in one of these far-flung school with 38 kilometers away from the town. For almost 4 years, he really experienced these things which pushed him to conduct this study because he believes that through this, DepEd officials will be made aware of what is really happening on the ground in the implementation of Modular Distance Learning (MDL) in the far-flung areas of the country specifically in the District of Leon II.
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