Reinventing Education: Stories of Survival and Success Amid a Disruption

How did your school react to these challenges and what were the changes or the innovations that you implemented to be able to ensure that learning is not disrupted?

 

Fr. Laraño: Going back to our COVID FREE program, after identifying those COVID challenges, we can now create plans to be FREE, not necessarily free from COVID but we can be free from its consequences and its effects.

 

The first one and the most important is letter F for formation program, because we are not just an educational system, we are a Catholic educational system. We are 20 diocesan schools under our bishop. So what we did is to make this formation program for all aspects. We make use of the integral accompaniment, which means that as we form our program, we see to it that we can respond to the different needs of people. The first thing that we did during those first weeks of the pandemic is to do what we called kumustahan. We do not begin our meetings by immediately identifying problems, we try to know what is the foundation of everyone. So I begin the kumustahan with our principals, then after that, I ask the principals to do their own kumustahan with their teachers, and then teachers, students, and parents. I even have kumustahan with all our school chaplains. We begin with that because we know that with that kumustahan, we can create those responses to our challenges. For example, if we find out that they need mental health awareness, we made mental health awareness programs. We especially paid attention to the spiritual part because we are a Catholic educational system, so we help uplift the hearts of our stakeholders through spiritual activities.

 

Letter R is resiliency plan especially in relation to first, the modalities, and then with our finances. We were able to look at our finances as an educational system and not just as a school so that we can help our mission schools. Thanks be to God, no one was left behind. We just restructure our finances so that every month, our mission schools can receive something. Letter E is engagement of all the stakeholders. In our program, we really involve everyone—parents, guardians, even alumni—to help us. And then lastly, E for educational flexibility. We call this FLEX—flexible learning experiences. Those are the four important responses we made in order for us to be FREE from COVID.

 

Ms. Licas: One thing I’ll add to what Fr. Laraño already mentioned is prioritizing. We are a very small school. Between learning and earning losses, we chose not to lose learning, and we braced ourselves for a substantial financial risk. We prioritized student learning no matter how much we would lose financially. Supporting our students and teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic has been and will always be our top priority. A big chunk of the proposed budget and projected expenditures that were supposed to go to pre-COVID projects and programs, like upgrading our library in 2020, did not push through because of the more pressing needs of the school, which includes online learning requirements, online learning solutions, and quick responses to cushion the pandemic's impact on our students and our teachers.

 

Fr. Sales: Getting through the challenges necessitated working together. We conducted consultations and sought everyone's ideas on how to address this situation. Students, faculty, and the management came up with suggestions and recommendations which were reviewed, modified, and finally approved by administration for implementation. SLU's innovative approach to the pandemic involved the development of a learning continuity plan to help transition to a flexible learning environment. This approach included first, the adoption of two learning modalities: correspondence-based learning for offline learners and online based learning for online learners in order to respond to the actual situation of our students. Remember that not all of our students have internet connectivity so we have to respond to that need. The online learning mode follows the combination of synchronous and asynchronous modality.

 

Second, the conduct of intensive and up-to-date faculty training to prepare and equip our teachers and to help them with the distance learning modalities. When the lockdown happened, not all of our teachers were prepared for these learning modalities. It was very important that we immediately make a decision to train our teachers to deal with online learning modalities. We are very lucky because for our teacher education program or courses, we have professors who have been teaching this even in pre-pandemic times, so the only thing that administration needed to do was to form a team to train our teachers to deal with online learning modalities. We did this very early. In the first week of May 2020, we were already training all our 1,500 teachers, and after the month of May 2020, we accomplished our one-month training program for our faculty. We extended our training programs also to other schools, so we were able to train 4,000 teachers in the region and beyond.

 

The third is the utilization of learning management systems (LMS) to administer the delivery of courses and basic education to the graduate level. So we have different learning management systems and one very effective one. And I must say we give due credits to Diwa’s Genyo because it has been very helpful also as a learning management system.

 

And fourth and most recently, in compliance with CHED and LGU requirements, is the holding of limited face-to-face arrangements for medical and allied programs, as well as starting online on-the-job training or practicum for graduating students in some programs. We've been doing this already for two semesters and we've been very lucky because we did not have any incident of transmission of COVID, and as a matter of fact, we are going to extend this to the engineering programs starting probably next semester.

 

When the country was placed under lockdown, one of the first things we decided as a matter of policy was to keep our non-teaching employees affected by the indefinite suspension of face-to-face classes in the university. The only thing that we did was to look around to see which offices needed extra helping hands, so we scattered all these personnel to those departments that needed more help. In the spirit of solidarity, the SLU Barangayanihan became the focal point to carry out the university’s assistance efforts to help stranded Louisian students in the different barangays of Baguio City who are in need of food and also psychological counseling.

 

How did your collaborations with your fellow educators, with other schools, with students and parents, with the community, and with resource providers help you succeed during the last pandemic school year?

 

Fr. Sales: With the lockdown that saw schools shifting to alternative modes of education, we consulted our stakeholders on issues affecting everyone in the light of the crisis. The SLU administration has always supported open communication with our employees’ union and with our student governments. The process of consensus-building has been very challenging for us. We have always maintained the spirit of dialogue. We know how some demands being made can sometimes be unrealistic, but it is always wise to be sober and patient. That is why we've always recognized first, the solicitation of ideas from various disciplines, especially from mental health professionals, to help the university reach a balance between life and work, and to ensure the integral wellness of our employees and also our students.

 

Second, collaboration means considerations are also given during the payment of fees, the deadline of submission of requirements, and the extension for completion of grades for students with incomplete marks. Third, collaboration is also the promotion of the well-being of our students through various guidance services, especially through counseling and mental health programs. We have launched several mental health awareness programs in the university. Lastly, collaboration also entails the need to monitor and evaluate the implementation of flexible learning modalities to ensure the success of new platform learning platforms, and also to ensure quality in the delivery of our learning modalities.

 

Fr. Laraño: During the first weeks of the pandemic, we already started to make learning kits for students both for online and offline learning delivery. In 2020, 70% of our students are online, so thank you for Genyo because before the pandemic, only a few of our schools were subscribed to Genyo. But now, because of the pandemic, we decided to make Genyo the official LMS of the whole school system. We were able to create those learning kits through the help of Genyo.

 

What we did also during that time because we are an educational system is we divided the lessons to the teachers from all those 20 schools in order to re-identify teachers who have specializations. We asked them to do the learning kits for that particular subject. We can really feel and experience the collaboration within the educators because everyone has something to share. And then for the students and parents, we had constant communication with them especially through social media platforms. We really activated all our social media platforms in order to communicate with them regularly regarding all the updates in the preparation of the schools for the upcoming school year.

 

Our 20 schools are divided into three clusters, and many of them are mission schools, so in relation to finances, they cannot pay for the salaries of our teachers. So what we decided is for the big schools in our system to help those small schools in order to have their salaries and benefits updated every month. During the pandemic, we also asked for the help of our alumni. Some of our alumni were able to help students who are struggling financially by making them scholars. Those are just some of the collaborative efforts of our educational community.

 

Ms. Licas: We maximized relationships with a lot of agencies and a lot of people. The challenges presented by the pandemic have increased the participation of parents, students, tech providers, and other stakeholders. Maximizing these relationships through consultation and partnership helped the school build institutional resiliency and promote the efficient use of the very limited resources we have. When it comes to our education partners like Diwa, I was a passive client before, but the pandemic is a totally different territory for me. I became more straightforward in asking for whatever help or assistance they could afford us for the benefit of our school and for the students and the teachers.

 

I did not stop in the Philippines. I even knocked at the doors abroad. I learned how to haggle with foreign companies to ask for help, technical assistance, and more things we could offer our students. I researched so I can learn what we could adopt from them. That's one thing that I can share with school leaders—do not stop until you get the help even from abroad, because they will help. We are not subsidized by the government, so we have to stand on our own and put on a little courage when we ask for help.

​

What were your best practices during a school year where face-to-face engagement is not allowed?

 

Ms. Licas: Number one is a well-built school-home connection. We stayed connected with the parents, with the homes of our students. I believe this is very strong in our school as we consistently get at least 90% attendance in parent-teacher conferences, and even in virtual webinars and school opening orientation programs.

 

Another thing is strong student-teacher connectedness. We have to set aside ICT and digital tools, because they're nothing without this strong relationship for me as a leader of the school. And teachers having increased interpersonal connectedness with students—it's outside their calculus, outside their grammar and composition writing. The connection between the student and the teacher is after-school. Fortunately, we are a very small school, but unfortunately, being a very small school means we have limited resources so I love the way our teachers and our students connect with each other.

 

Very important also is promoting teacher well-being. We take care of our teachers. Every day, our teachers juggle many responsibilities and many demanding tasks. As a result, they can easily put other people's needs first before their own. We must ensure teachers and their well-being remain at the heart of our response to this education crisis. At first, I was willing not to receive my salary because we didn't know where to get money especially upon discovering that we were losing students and returning tuition fees. We just need to prioritize and truly take care of our staff, especially the teachers.

 

When we knew we had these three important pillars, we modified our academic program. This year, we used our own contextualized hybrid flexible (hyflex) academic and non-academic engagement. It's a totally different curriculum. It's contextualized in a sense that we localized it based on our setup, based on what we have, and based on the potential capacity of our teachers. With hyflex, students feel connected to the school, and they are involved with the school. Every student understands what hyflex is, and because this is new, we tried our best to educate the parents. Even in the absence of face-to-face classes, students continue to be active in school activities. We also use virtual reality for our kindergarten class because they cannot come to school. We also have a channel on YouTube where we talk about how we tried our best to transform and to implement these new technologies in school.

 

Fr. Sales: In anticipation of a protracted empty campus, we have taken four significant steps in response to the current situation and in view of a post-pandemic scenario. First is the SLU COVID-19 Response Team. Aside from implementing university-based health and safety protocols and complying with CHED directives, the SLU COVID-19 Response Team was also tasked to keep every Louisian updated and informed as events unfold. They use social media to reach out to our students and to tell them what's happening. On the SLU website and social media, we regularly issue advisories. We also created a help desk per school to address students and faculty concerns during the lockdown.

 

Second is the academic road map. Given the challenge presented by the pandemic during the early days, SLU crafted an academic road map to help us navigate through the crisis. That road map was specifically designed to address the learning situation of everyone, whether pre-pandemic, during pandemic, and post-pandemic. Initially, we adopted the online mode of learning through the use of Google applications. Upon assessing students’ unique learning situations, we provided options for online and correspondence learning. Accordingly, for purposes of guidance, review, and monitoring, we developed our manual for distance education, so now, the university has a manual for distance education.

 

The third is we also shifted student support services online, which means the Registrar's Office, the Guidance Office, the Office of Student Affairs, the library, and so on were all moved online. The same is true with our university formation services activities, so training, recollections, debriefing, and even our eucharistic celebrations are now online. Online channels for students’ enrollment, admission, as well as payment have also been put in place. Even our graduation ceremonies and many other ceremonies have also been placed online.

 

The fourth is our comprehensive campus development program. The absence of faculty and students onsite has allowed us to embark on major infrastructure projects. School building renovations, including various learning facilities like laboratories, classrooms, AVRs, and offices, have all been undertaken.

 

Fr. Laraño: Many have been mentioned already so I will just add one more thing when it comes to our good practice during this pandemic, especially as a Catholic educational system. The first and foremost reason why parents choose to have their children to be with us in our educational community is because of the faith aspect and faith formation. So we highlighted that by making this holistic formation program especially for our students and teachers. Even in 2020, we did not cancel our recollections and retreats. We had our two-day retreat for our graduating students online, so we made these modules for them. And what was so touching was the interaction between the students and their parents sharing their emotions and experiences during this pandemic. Also, from the beginning of the pandemic up to now, we have our online mass everyday, and we have our online rosaries. So what we emphasize is really the particular need of our stakeholders for faith formation, without undermining the need for quality education.