According to a study conducted by Islam, et. al. (2020), students are experiencing heightened depression and anxiety. As reported, students were suffering from moderately severe depression and severely suffering from anxiety. The outbreak of coronavirus disease has greatly affected or influenced the lives and livelihoods of people around the world as the declaration from the second week of March 2020 by the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic. As what happened in Bangladesh which had a lockdown in their country which also in other countries around the world on March 26, 2020, a strategy for precaution is the implementation of “social distance” through “home quarantine” to prevent or limit the spread of the virus in the population of the country.
Additionally, these implementations experienced by people through ‘home quarantine’ who are under lockdown, coupled with the uncertainty in the academic professional career have had virus impacts on the mental health of students. In addition to this, it states that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused or created a psycho-emotional chaotic situation due to the sharp increase in mental health problems in other countries, including anxiety, stress, sleep disorders, and fear among its citizens.
The result of the study by Islam, et. al. (2020), shows that in Bangladesh the students have mild to severe depressive symptoms and also severe anxiety symptoms. This study also shows that depression widespread among students who have no physical exercise and also among those students in terms of academic activities who consider themselves lagging behind others. It was also stated that in Bangladesh, both depression and anxiety among students in academia are present. With more than two-thirds of students were said to be experiencing mild to severe depression and anxiety.
Universities in developed countries have implemented strict health rules as part of a plan to help students continue their education in higher education. The findings of this study highlighted the fact that Bangladesh’s nationwide lockdown will cause major disruption in academic programs and a gap in both teaching and learning (Islam et. al. 2020).
As cited by Anzaldo (2020), education in the new normal is actually very challenging for us here in the Philippines, especially in attempting to push education in the midst of the pandemic. The Department of Education (DepEd) as well as the Commission on Higher education (CHED), despite numerous objections, adopted and implemented the flexible blended learning strategy despite the risk of opening classes due to the virus. In addition to this, the new normal education along with other existing modalities is facing various disapprovals but due to the perseverance and efforts of the education sectors in our country, it has been approved for the purpose of continuing education in the midst of the pandemic.
For this reason, various safety measures have also emerged implemented by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in our country while teaching and learning will continue here in our country, it is to protect the health and welfare of teachers and students. This leads to some safety protocols such as proper sanitation of schools where modular learning is implemented by giving or providing alcohol in each classroom, using face masks and face shields, and implementing social distancing.
Coronavirus illness (COVID-19), according to the WHO, is an infectious disease. caused by a newly identified infectious illness coronavirus (Anzaldo, 2021). Furthermore, the vast majority of students are modular (print) learners in remote places where there isn’t always an internet connection available. With the support of their parents, they are learning, the role of teaching at home. Teachers, on the other hand, assist parents while they are at school. The majority of students are modular (print) learners in remote places where internet access is not always available. They are learning with their parents’ assistance or guardians who are now functioning as their home instructors. Teachers, on the other hand, provide guidance to the parents. Their children are being educated at home.
In addition to this, from the wide variety of methods or tools that educators use to evaluate, measure, and use to document students’ academic readiness, learning progress, skill acquisition, or educational skills. The types of assessments that are used in education here in the Philippines are Formative Assessment, Summative Assessment, Performance Assessment, and Portfolio Assessment. Also from here are the modifications of the assessments used to measure the knowledge and understanding of the learners. There are two assessments used in modular learning, these are from summative assessments and are called “written works” and “performance outputs” (Anzaldo, 2021).
Also, Anzaldo (2021) stated that, if the capacity of the students is given priority, modular distance learning will be more convenient. For students who do not have the ability to afford gadgets, it can give students the opportunity to study, modular learning is more convenient and reliable. Modular distance learning provides flexibility for students to study at their own pace and review work as needed, and modular learning is the most appropriate learning modality in our country.
Despite this, there are padding advantages and disadvantages to having modular distance learning in our country. This year, although the spread of the pandemic in the country has not completely subsided, the economy and education have been severely affected and that is the major importance to our country along with the health and welfare of the people. Despite this pandemic should not be stopped and requires padding to pursue education or learning. The advantages of these are that they have students who are able to adapt to learning in this type of academic set-up wherefrom the guidance and supervision of their parents. This includes giving learners value in their lessons, they are also able to develop time management and closer bonds with their families. As advantages happen, it comes with disadvantages and it is not all students or learners do their modules committedly, they do this just to comply with the requirements. Another disadvantage is that parents answer children’s modules, and, there are parents who find it difficult to teach their children, especially to secondary students where the subjects are complicated (Anzaldo, 2021).
To the study conducted by Anzaldo (2021), modular distance learning is better than online classes, especially in our locality. Modular learning helps to maintain the educational level of students. In addition to this are the recommendations where parents and teachers should be aware of their respective roles and responsibilities for students to gain knowledge effectively. And likewise, for students, it requires that they be responsible for answering their modules.
From the study conducted by Malta, et. al. (2022), distance learning is seen as important as an acceleration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as it spreads to traditional campus-based schools/universities. In addition, the illustration of distance education students’ experiences says that he is now the basis or key to improving the educational processes of students more widely. Furthermore, the pandemic has been able to cause or create new pressures, especially on mental health across the population around the world, but specifically, those affected are the students, as is evident in various reports on rising mental health concerns from university students (as cited by Cao, et. al. 2020; Grubic et. al., 2020; Xiong et. al., 2020).
In addition to this, students’ mental health is undoubtedly important in and of itself, but it also has academic implications. University students’ academic performance has been shown to be harmed by both depression and anxiety.
According to Malta et. al. (2022), mental health issues have been shown to have a negative impact on students’ level of achievement and development, as well as whether or not they completed specific modules and degrees (as cited by Hughes and Spanner, 2019). In addition to this, the cultivation of a sense of connectivity is one component that colleges may consider a protective factor for student mental health.
A study according to Malta et. al., (2022), on large-mental health analysts, found that students’ emotional engagement with, and their feelings towards their staff and peers as well as their sense of belonging to educational institutions, was able to provide of an impact on their academic achievements (as cited by Lei, et. al., 2018). In addition to this, according to one recent study that issued a warning regarding the negative impact of distance learning or education on the mental health of students, they discovered this to be a predictor of poor academic achievement. More research is needed to identify students’ psychological requirements in distant education, particularly in post-pandemic situations (as cited by Giusti et. al, 2021). Moreover, because of anxiety’s impact on academic achievement, anxiety was specifically addressed as a mental health variable (as cited by Duncan, et. al., 2021).