"Kudos to these unsung heroes."
We have time and again discussed the extreme difficulties the ordinary Filipino has to bear amid the continuing COVID pandemic crisis.
We have assigned praises to the so-called “frontliners,” who risk their own lives in the course of their jobs in service to the victims of the deadly coronavirus infection.
The virus has claimed the lives of over 2. 2 million, including nearly 10,800 Filipinos since the epidemic began in Wuhan, China just over a year ago.
Many of them, doctors, nurses, and other health workers, have made the ultimate sacrifice or died in line of duty.
Hats off, too, to the Armed Forces troops and Philippine National Police personnel, firefighters, Coast Guard, Immigration agents, local government units (LGU), and non-government organizations (NGO) workers.
But, it has occurred to me time and again the need to recognize, as well, parents turned-teachers under the current “blended learning system” of the Department of Education (DepEd).
Elementary school and high school teachers have been relegated to the background, providing the materials and guidance to the parents who now have to literally teach their own children the lessons prescribed for the respective grade levels.
We all know how difficult this predicament is for the young students, as well as the parents and guardians, including elder siblings and relatives.
This is especially cumbersome for the poor public school constituents who lack the gadgets to keep up with the lessons the DepEd airs on television or sent by teachers through the internet.
Poor students are at great disadvantage and have to rely on the limited printed modules that contain multitudes of exercises but insufficient information and inadequate elaboration of subject matters.
Nobody could have imagined such a scenario ever happening but we have gathered from parents and teachers associations (PTAs), DepEd officials and civic groups that parents and guardians have generally fulfilled expectations satisfactorily.
Our “success” did not come without the serious sacrifices we made such as giving up livelihood activities to make time for the children’s modules.
In this case, parents have become more than the teachers’ partners in the children’s education by dutifully and religiously performing the tasks for which the teachers are paid for.
We strongly believe that parents deserve the recognition and a generous reward to go along with it, be it in the form of financial assistance or honorarium from DepEd.
The ACT-CIS Party-list led by Rep. Eric Yap supports such a proposal to honor the parents and guardians for stepping up and taking the challenge of continuing the children’s education amid the most difficult times.
We, parents, realized that we could not just wait for the vaccines to arrive to bring back the children to the classroom for the usual face-to-face learning with the teachers.
We saw the degenerating effects of the months of lockdown, especially on the little kids who are prohibited to go out to get fresh air. They are only allowed to go out if they're going to Boracay Islands.
With the impending mass vaccinations, now we can realistically hope for a return to the classrooms sooner or later under the New Normal.
Indeed the public health crisis has served as a litmus test to different ways to the people, the government, our families, friends, our livelihood, jobs, business, relationships and ourselves.
Well, I would say that parents and guardians turned “teachers” and tutors have earned their bragging rights as frontliners in the war versus COVID.
Kudos to us, parents, unsung heroes of the 2020 pandemic.
