Title:
ADDRESSING THE DEMANDS OF DISTANCE LEARNING: PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS IN FOCUS

Authors:
Maria Ana Polintan Galang, Ph.D, Philippines

Abstract:
The study focused on the demands of distance learning being addressed by the public high schools in the Division of Bulacan in terms of the schools’ learning resources, learning delivery modality, internet connectivity, and ICT skills. In addition to that, the study aimed to determine the respondents’ management of the school, the prevailing challenges encountered, and the best practices being utilized by the school principals that may be shared with other public high schools in addressing the demands of distance learning. The researcher purposely selected secondary schools in SDO Bulacan which consist of twelve (12) public secondary high school principals considered as best schools based on the report on performance ranking of the delivery units on the Enhanced Basic Education Information System (E-BEIS) handling basic education in the school year 2020-2021 and three (3) DepEd leaders. Data were collected for a period of one trimester of the academic year 2021-2022. Thematic analysis was used in the interpretation and coding of data. Themed-based findings revealed that public high school principals are greatly challenged in terms of having poor internet connectivity, insufficient learning resources, and continuous upskilling and reskilling of school leaders on ICT posed by the pandemic. As a result, the researcher proposed a management framework for distance learning as a commendable framework that will serve as a guide to other public high schools in addressing the demands of distance learning and for us to achieve good to great educational institutions as our response in this great era of change brought by the COVID- 19 pandemic.