Essay About Limited Face-to-face Classes
In today's world, students are sick of facing the same cycle of today's distance learning modality. The effects of self-learning modules on students' mental health are growing more serious day by day. The fact that our new normal education system does not just affect the learner's creativity but also their everyday lives is the reason why some of them suffer both academically and financially. This is sad and unjust because only those who are privileged enough enjoy and lay down comfortably on our new system.
Despite the unbalanceness, a sweet solution can be conducted. Knowing that students are sick of it, face-to-face classes will serve as a sweet medicine for them.
To begin, face-to-face classes provide a healthy way of learning. One reason is that it includes a discussion of the lessons, outdoor activities, and performance tasks that allow students to interact with their classmates, there is group work, and immediate feedback. Based on headspace.org.au, It's a great way to learn compared to distance learning which only provides reading and writing tasks. It also lacks immediate feedback. It's limiting the learner's interactions and creativity because every task is done at home. If there is one experience that I and my classmates would similarly say, it would be: "It's uncomfortable." Studying at home is extremely uncomfy, it is full of distractions. Besides, students are so done with distance learning modality. They're missing their friends. They want to experience celebrating teacher's day, Valentine's day, and Christmas day in school. The students enjoy learning more in face-to-face classes since there is a lack of social interaction in distance learning.
Another reason is that face-to-face classes provide students with strict discipline.
That's something that distance learning lacks.
Research in 2021 conducted by Lorenzo, et al., states that 74% of students admitted that at least once during the past school year had engaged in a serious act of cheating. Many students nowadays are guilty of plagiarism. Since they are studying at home, searching for the answers on the internet is easy to access. They lack discipline with the past 2 years of modular learning, cheating becomes common to others. On September 22, 2021, GMA reported a piece of news about the "Online Kopyahan" that's been circulating online. It is a Facebook group that is used to leak answers from online learning tests, exams, and modules. Some students also share answers in their group chats. If this continues, the learner’s performance and creativity will be limited and will not be enhanced. They will learn to depend on the internet and not on themselves. That's why face-to-face classes are crucial. It will challenge students to think and share their ideas without searching on the internet.
Most importantly, students are so done with this unfair system. I have interviewed my classmates, both the privileged and unprivileged. They all agreed that face-to-face classes are fairer than modular distance learning. It is because students' financial status does not affect their academic performance as much as our current learning modality does. Modular learning is not good for students, especially those who have low financial status because the expenses for their needs and the expenses for school contradict each other. According to Yusuf (2020), finances play an important role in students’ academic performance. Financial problems are a serious issue that needs to be addressed as it leads to multiple stages of problems such as health issues and academic performance. Dang and Bulus (2015) education is a high-cost social service therefore insufficient financial support will be a problem for students to enhance themselves in academics thus leading to poor academic performance. Privileged students enjoy learning while unprivileged students suffer. Most of my classmates agreed with the quote: "Less money, less grade" and "More money, greater grades." That is because of the projects where privileged students can buy as many designs as they want to make their project presentable, while unprivileged students have nothing to do but suffer from what is only available in their homes.
To conclude, face-to-face classes are a must. It will not only improve students' skills and abilities, but it will also help them become better people by allowing them to interact with and learn from their environment. This is a sweet solution for students who want to expand their horizons. This is an excellent way to alleviate boredom and rekindle a student's enthusiasm for school. It will undoubtedly boost a student's love for learning. And a new era of hope will dawn on the youth and the nation.
