Prolonged Hybrid Setup: A Symptom of a Worsening Education Crisis

Mark Laurenz B. Handayan

For almost three years, the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the methods of teaching and learning especially in higher education. However, the prolonged lack of face-to-face classes further widens the mismatch between learned theory and applied practice. The UP system is not a stranger to adapting policies that were devoid of its constituents’ demands.

Despite minimal progressive efforts, the university’s implementation of hybrid classes fails to consider the woes that go beyond the simplicity of merging online and on-site setups.

Faux “convenience”

One of the promises of a hybrid setup includes marketing self-paced learning as a mode of “flexible instruction.” In an ideal hybrid setup, both the students and faculty have the agency to peruse online materials at their own pace. However, many seem adamant about the steeper cognitive load the hybrid setup requires.

“Recorded video lectures can oftentimes be static. It feels artificial; thus, making me disengaged. A lecture that is usually finished for an hour on-site takes me twice the time and headspace to finish processing in a hybrid setup,” a sentiment raised by a 3rd-year student from the College of Public Health

In most colleges of UP Manila, lectures for the current academic year remained online while laboratory and departmental exams were held on-site. This selective importance shifts the emphasis of face-to-face classes from simulating critical discussions to high-stake assessments.

All of a sudden, authentic on-site discussions were replaced with monotonous recorded videos. Consultations became discussion forums. Raising hands was reduced to Zoom functions. The rigorous art of dialogue has also merely become an afterthought to convenience.

Even colleges that shifted to hybrid instruction were faced with issues. Oftentimes, students still have to accomplish online lectures and formative assessments after their on-site laboratory classes. And given that the university has insufficient resources, accessibility remains an issue to supplement the shift from a traditional to a hybrid setup.

There is also an evident mismatch between skill formation from online learning and applying such in real-life practice. Academic programs, whose competencies relied on practical skills, were met with unprecedented expectations despite the lack of on-site training.

Under a hybrid setup, merging the digital and on-site landscapes adds perplexity to non-conventional pedagogy. Unlike traditional classes where there were definite bounds to class schedules, students have to overcome a steeper learning curve in digesting lectures aside from their usual course deliverables.

The loss of shared pacing further blurs the divide between work and personal spaces. And without the structure of classroom learning, the flexibility of hybrid classes remains an unfulfilled promise.

Hybrid setup comes with hidden costs

In the middle of July, the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs (OVPAA) announced in a memorandum that the UP system will shift to blended learning for A.Y. 2022–2023. UP Manila then later confirmed that the delivery of face-to-face classes was at the discretion of colleges, citing that each can shift to a hybrid setup based on the readiness of the faculty.

This non-standardized implementation of face-to-face classes prioritized programs with laboratory courses (mostly from white colleges) to shift to an on-site setup, while humanities and social sciences programs (mostly from CAS) were left to operate under the usual online instruction.

With very little time to prepare, the students and the faculty raised logistical concerns. Students from distant provinces had to book tickets and look for accommodations at a much higher price due to immediate demands. Bureaucracy from face-to-face requirements (i.e. PhilHealth Insurance, Physical Exam) also burdened students away from NCR.

The contentious academic calendar also added strain to the pockets of those away from Manila. Recently, students had to book tickets over the holidays to finish remaining exams that were pushed to January,a month that is traditionally the start of the semestral break in the regular UPM academic calendar.

Students whose financial capacity was ravaged by the pandemic had no choice but to conform to the anti-student policy of the administration.

Moving Forward: Discourse requires conducive learning spaces

Despite the return of students, there is little support to sustain the reopening of facilities and conducive learning spaces on the campus. Students in UP Manila commenced their return to campus with construction sites, limited classrooms, and flooded areas — all of which are indicators of an overarching issue of budget cuts in state-funded universities. This is also a culmination of the years of neglect by the UPM administration in heeding the call of students for adequate spaces.

If the university wants to uphold its mandate of cultivating critical thinkers, then it needs to heed the calls of its constituents.

A genuine academic reform requires an established dialogue among the foremost sectors of staff, faculty, and students. Administrators need to acknowledge that there are certain nuances from traditional learning that cannot be complemented with online learning, no matter how innovative modern methods may be.

The return of 100% face-to-face classes in the next semester will resurface issues that were shrugged off during the pandemic. Sooner or later, the lack of spaces, faculty, and resources will supersede the increasing demand for free quality education. On top of this is the PHP 124.8 million budget cut that UP received as reflected in the 2023 General Appropriations Act.

As long as designing setups remains unilateral, we continue to spiral into myopic policies we believe are solutions to multifaceted problems. A university devoid of student welfare is a manifestation of a deteriorating democracy. A striking metaphor for the country’s political instability. The issues faced in the current hybrid setup are not distinct pitfalls, but rather are symptoms of a deeply-entrenched education crisis.

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