Are the students ready for face-to-face learning?

Hannanie A.

We all know how students are feeling about Distance learning due to Covid 19. Students are being asked to stay at home and continue their education online. As the Covid 19 cases started to decrease these past few weeks and many of the restrictions had been lifted, I’m sure students are ready to go back face to face as students have been out of campus for more than a year.

Safety is a big part of our lives nowadays because of Covid 19. The campus needed to be closed for the safety of the students due to the spike of Covid 19 cases in early 2020. Now, by looking at the daily cases in the Philippines, I believe that the cases have shown an improvement and give all the students a high chance to have face-to-face learning. 

As mentioned by the World Health Organization(WHO), children under the age of 18 had only 8.5% cases reported for Covid 19 and are categorized as low risk and are only mild cases. In the Philippines, vaccination for minors aged 12-17 has already started in early November. According to  Manila Bulletin, over 50,000 children in Manila alone had been vaccinated as of November 15 and this number could increase more in the following months.

If students are allowed to start face-to-face learning it gives a lot of benefits to students. It allows the students to socially interact and communicate with each other. We all know that while having distance learning, students tend to feel uncomfortable staring at their laptops for more than an hour. Students can’t use all the facilities that had been provided by the schools such as theatre, gym, library, classroom, music room, etc. As new students, they can’t keep in touch with their new friends as they are not meeting each other face to face. It is also hard to talk during distance learning as we are all in the same space and we can’t have the opportunity to know each other more.  Distance learning also makes it difficult for them to be familiar with their surroundings and how it feels to be on campus and be together with their friends.

After all, students work so much throughout the day and even spend more than 7 hours on screen, face-to-face learning helps the students to reduce the usage of screen time and also to stop online class difficulties. Due to the lack of socializing. As students; their time is filled with lots of work on screen.

 I am hoping that face-to-face learning can soon be allowed. Students may also show up to school with a big smile on their face with a mask on and normalize the new normal world.

Mika A.

We have been online learning for around two years due to Covid 19. ISM has been planning to open campus for the students for a long time. Now there is a possibility that ISM would open soon, but are students ready to go back to face to face? I believe that students aren’t ready to go back to face-to-face learning. 

If students were to go back to school there would be some disadvantages. The most important thing would be safety. Not all students have completed their second vaccination, and some may not even have their first. Many parents may be fine with this, but on the other hand, there may be people who wouldn’t want their child to go to school, or the students themselves not wanting to. We would have to ensure many safety precautions which are good yet it may be hard as well. For example, masks, hand sanitizer, and social distancing. 

Some students are currently not in the Philippines, meaning that they wouldn’t be able to go to school physically. From my experience, it took a long time for me to get a flight to the Philippines during covid. Quarantine would also take a long time for the students to go back to school. 

Returning students would be required to provide their own transportation. This would increase the air pollution levels proven by MONGABAY in 2020. During the lockdown not many used transportations, which decreased the air pollution level. 

Many students would struggle to go back to school mode since we have become used to online learning. For example, having 15 minutes breaks online whereas at school you would only have 5 minutes. During online learning, you could also sleep more since you wouldn’t have to go to school. The time that could be saved can be used for school work or resting. 

If students were to go to school it would also be hard for the students because in school they would have to do many safety protocols. Again masks, hand sanitizer, and social distancing rules would have to be followed. P.E may also be hard since with all the safety protocols we wouldn’t be able to do sports with any physical touch. 

As much as ISM would want to have students on campus, we would have to know all the problems and disadvantages that would happen. Students would worry about their safety, as well as having a hard time getting used to all the safety protocols and getting used to going to school. I believe that students are not ready to go back to face-to-face learning.