Lived Experiences of Senior HS Students living in Remote Areas of Tanauan in the

midst of Pandemic

CHAPTER 1

THE PROBLEM AND ITS BACKGROUND

Introduction

The lived experiences of students living in a remote area became one of the serious

issues nowadays. Living in a remote area is one the disadvantages of students to their

education, because they are away from schools, civilization and encounter transportation

issues, power interruption/outages and loss of internet connectivity.  

Since early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable influence

on society (Nicola et al., 2020). The coronavirus disease 2019 crisis has impacted

not only the economic, psychological, and social aspects of the world but also

particularly, the educational sector. The virus, which first emerged in 2019 of

December, became a epidemic leading to school closures and eventually, migration

to remote learning by all levels of educational institutions in the new normal

education. Thus, the traditional delivery of instruction in education has transformed

and in turn, learning spaces were re- organized.

To respond to the challenge of innovating educational delivery mechanisms in

higher education, colleges and universities across the globe ventured into different

practices such as distance education, online teaching, remote learning, blended

learning, and mobile learning. These practices can be collectively called emergency

remote education (ERE). It is the temporary change in the delivery of instruction

caused by the sudden occurrence of a crisis. ERE does not mean going away from the

traditional arrangement of the instructional process nor creating a completely new

educational system. It provides a temporary feasible alternative for education

practitioners to perform instruction and provide students with necessary

instructional support (Hodges et al., 2020). ERE is also a branch of distance

education, however, treated as an ‘option’ not ‘obligation’ in this time of crisis

(Bozkurt et al., 2020).

According to Medha Basu (2015), only 26% of public schools are connected to

internet or are able to connect to the internet,” and nearly 5,000 public schools in remote

areas don’t have access to electricity. The Department of Education added that “Even as

access to basic education continues to improve across the country, several public schools in

geographically isolated and disadvantaged areas still face problems in terms of facilities and

resources”.

These prove that living in a remote area is not easy for students because they are

experiencing major problems such as trouble in electricity, internet connectivity, lack of

access in information and education. As the coronavirus pandemic rapidly sweeps across the

world, the lived experiences of students living in remote areas became more difficult because

the schools are still not reopening and not yet prepared to implement face-to-face classes,

students still having a hard time to adapt new normal education. 

According to Commission on Audit Report (2021) based on total assets in 2019, the

Province of Batangas ranked second to the most richest Province in the Philippines in year

2020, it is not enough to address the issues in remote areas because this is not the only

problem that the Province are facing, and the pandemic is still here being a burden. Living in

remote places is likely to cause a lot of issues, including issues with schooling,

transportation, job, electricity, and internet connectivity. Pupils, parents and their livelihood

have been severely affected by this epidemic since students are unable to attend school, and

parents have taken the role of being their temporary teachers; in other cases, no one can teach
students to their studies because parents must work to support their families. Thus, a research

is necessary and relevant to address this issue.

This study looked into the different lived experiences of students living in a remote

areas in the midst of pandemic.The researchers focuses on the commonality of a lived

experience within a particular group. Thus, to identify the issues and current state of the

students living in the rural area in the midst of pandemic. The fundamental goal of the

approach is to arrive at a description of the nature of the particular phenomenon (Creswell,

2013 as cited in Alcaide & Lapie 2018).

REFERENCE:

Erwin E. Rotas, Michael B. Cahapay(2020) Difficulties in Remote Learning:

Voices of Philippine University Students in the Wake of COVID-19 Crisis.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1285295.pdf ,

https://govinsider.asia/innovation/the-philippines-gets-serious-about-connecting-

its-schools/ , DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION(DEPED), COMMISSION ON AUDIT

REPORT, ABS CBN NEWS

Alcaide, J.C, and Lapie J.A. (2018). BOON AND BANE OF TEACHING

SCIENCE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES OF CALAMBA: A

PHENOMENOLOGICAL INQUIRY. Undergraduate Study. Laguna College of

Business and Arts.

 Theoretical Framework/ Conceptual Framework

According to Moore and Kearsley (1996), distance education is defined

as planned learning that normally occurs in a different place and requires a well-

defined system of delivery that includes modified teaching techniques, alternative

modes for communication, including, but not limited to technology, as well as

alternative administrative and organizational components (In Birnbaum, 2001, p. 1).

In 1990, M. Moore, the editor of The American Journal of Distance Education,

provides another view of distance education, as his definition states,

Distance education is all arrangements for providing instruction through

print or electronic communications media to person engaged in planned learning in a

place or time different from that of the instructor or instructors (Moore, 1990, p. xv).

The definition of Moore and Kearsley (1996) is quite different to (Garrison,

1990; Hayes, 1990) as remote learning education has been describe as no more than a

hodgepodge of ideas and practices taken from traditional classroom settings and

imposed on learners who just happen to be separated physically from an instructor. As

distance education struggles to identify appropriate theoretical frameworks,

implementation issues also become important.

(Garrison, 1990; Hayes, 1990) theory’s definition of remote learning is much

more relevant to the aims of study due to the switch of traditional face-toface classes

to online and modular classes caused by the pandemic, learners and educators are

separated physically and must study and lecture on their own and education system

facing several issues in implementing remote learning.

 REFERENCE:

Beth H. Chaney, Ph.D., CHES Office of Health Informatics Texas A&M

University; History, Theory, and Quality Indicators of Distance Education: A

Literature Review

https://www.eurashe.eu/library/modernising-phe/mobility/virtual/WG4%20R

%20distanceed.pdf

The Central and Corollary Questions

This study looked into the Lived Experiences of Senior HS Students living in Remote

Areas in the midst of Pandemic. It was also through their lens that this study was angled at.

This phenomenological study is grounded on the central question,

"What is the essence of the Lived Experiences of Senior HS Students living in

Remote Areas in the midst of Pandemic?"

This also answers the following corollary questions:

Corollary Questions

1. How do SH Students Living in a Remote Areas describe their most

significant experiences?

2. What meanings may be formulated based on the co-participants’

testimonies?

3. What themes emerged from the formulated meanings?

 Scope and Delimitations

This study will focus on the lived experiences of students living in a remote area in

the midst of pandemic; this study will cover their concerns and the effectiveness of the new

normal education. The primary of this study will consist of the Senior High Students, Grade

11 and Grade 12 enrolled in academic year 2021-2022. The respondents will be limited to ten

(5) Senior High School Students who are from any strand Humanities and Social Science

(HUMSS), Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Technical

Vocational Livelihood (TVL), General Academic strand (GAS) and Accountancy and

Business Management (ABM) from any schools in the Province of Batangas.

The study used qualitative analysis with interview as the main data-gathering tool and

the co-researchers were purposely selected.

Significance of the Study

The researcher deems that the following will benefit from the result of the study: 

Students: The result of this study can affect the students in the remote area to give

more attention in terms of the new normal education. It will be benefitted to the students to

be heard by our government to reach them out and provide more quality education and not to

left them behind.

Parents: This study may help them to realize the importance of education even though they

are in the remote areas. And it may help them to realize that their child needs some

encouragement to continue or to enroll in any rural schools.

 Teacher: It will help teachers to address what help needed to be done on every

student and they will be more compassionate to provide better learning with all those

students.

Deped: They would be given a feedback with regards to the needs of the students in

remote areas. By this, awareness and other implementation in improving quality education in

rural schools will highly prioritize.

Future researchers: This study will be important for them as this will serve as

reference to their study and encourage them to study rural education.

Definition of Terms

To clearly understand the study, the researchers defined operational terms in this

dissertation. These are follows:

Civilization. A civilization (or civilization) is a complex society that is characterized

by urban development, social stratification, a form of government, and the stage of human

social and cultural development and organization that is considered most advanced.

Clustered Themes.  Also known as subordinate themes, these are groups of

formulated meanings that share testimonial commonalities formulated based on textual

evaluation made by the researcher.

Electronic Survey. An electronic survey is a practical data collection method.

Emergent Themes.  Also known as superordinate themes, these are groups of

clustered themes further reduced to produce the essence of lived experiences of the co-

participants.

Formulated Meanings.  These are interpretations of the researcher on the

collective testimonies of the co-participants. 

 Google Form. Google Forms should provide quick approach to develop an online

questionnaire, gathering replies in an online worksheet. It is the best tool that can be used as

questionnaire based study.

Pandemic. An epidemic of an infectious disease that has spread across a large region,

for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals.

A widespread endemic disease with a stable number of infected individuals is not a

pandemic.

Remote Area. This is the area away from schools, civilization and encounter

transportation issues, power interruption/outages and loss of internet connectivity.

Rural Schools. The upland/highland remote school areas.

Threats. External operations such as an event or condition which, should it happen,

will potentially harm the activity and reduce the chance of success.

Urban Areas. It is very developed, meaning there is a density of human structures

such as houses, commercial buildings, roads, bridges, and railways.

Chapter 2

Review of Related Literature and Studies

This chapter presents the review of related literature and studies that related in lived

experiences of students living in a remote area in the midst of pandemic. The different

literature about Pursuing inclusive education in remote areas, The impact of pandemic to the

students living in a remote area, Educational Issues in Remote Areas, Lack of Facilities and

Resources, and the challenges facing of the students living in a remote area in the midst of

pandemic.
 In this chapter, the research described the facet of the main problem, its current

situation, and its variable through related literature and studies sourced mainly in books,

journals, the internet, and other studies. This review includes: 1.) Rurality Challenges; 2.)

Pedagogy; 3.) Career and Professional Development: 4.) Remoteness; 5.) Rural Education;

6.) Declining Enrolment; 7.) Facilities; 8.) Improvisation; 9.) Good weather condition and

Rural environment; 10.) Parental Involvement and Socio economic factor; 11.) Science

terminologies and small class size; and 12.) Teachers Relationship.

Pursuing inclusive education in remote areas

We, the researchers reviewed different literature about students living in a remote

area in the midst of the pandemic.

We all know that right now we are facing a pandemic due to the Covid19 virus. So

because of that a lot of things are all about online like ordering food, booking, even the work

is also done at home which is still related online. And we all know that in this pandemic our

school is also about online, it called online class and also we have modular that have no use

of internet but we cannot avoid using social media platform in searching to help us answering

our modules. But the question is how the students in rural area will survive in this set up?

According to Johanna Amancio (2021), Students are among the ongoing pandemic's

most severely impacted and overlooked victims, with over 1.5 billion affected learners

worldwide. Educational institutions, which once served as their second home, closed their

doors to students in the Philippines. The shift to distance learning caused major problems in a

country where more than half of all families live in the poverty line, especially for students in

the rural areas to push their right to education.

The COVID-19 educational disruption

On March 15, 2020, schools in the country were shut down due to the pandemic,

abruptly interfering with every learner's education. The closures, however, affected students

unevenly, with many learners in the rural areas lacking access to the needed supplies and

gadgets required by the new learning format (Amancio 2021).

 For Ututalum of the Sulu State College, the pandemic unexpectedly and dramatically

changed their roles as education leaders (Amancio 2021).

We felt like we were actors in a stage play, and then suddenly we were asked to stop,

and then change our stories, change our scripts, and even our costumes. And then we were

asked to go back to the stage again and continue the play, but this time, without a director

(Ututalum Students 2021).

Meneses of the Sta. Fe National High School detailed how the impact of the COVID-

19 pandemic on education varied from urban areas to rural areas (Amancio 2021). They said,

in their case, they are actually in a dilemma on how they are going to cope with the available

resources they have and the economic status of their learners. Many of their learners come

from poor families that have no access to internet connection and whose families cannot

provide laptops and other gadgets that can be used for online learning, and with limited

financial sources (Meneses of the Sta. Fe National High School 2021).

No student left behind

For the Sta. Fe National High School, Meneses noted that despite expecting a

decrease in enrollment, the institution reported a 4.68% increase for high school enrollees.

The milestone, however, was neither glitch nor a mere coincidence but a result of a tireless

effort on the faculty’s end. They are trying to determine the modality, they have online

enrollment but for those who have no internet, they visit the students in their respective

homes and conducted survey and learning’s mapping. They use students I.D. with QR code

so that they can trace the active students on accomplishments of modules. If the students are

not active, the teacher or adviser visits them to see the student (Amancio 2021).

To ensure that no student is left behind, Ututalum sought the help of their local

government Units and found a way to reach out to all their affected students (Amancio 2021).

After the enrollment, there was at least 1% who did not continue to enroll. They found out

that students can't afford to get their modules (Ututalum 2021). They went to the

municipalities where their students were affected and talked to their mayor and asked for
help. They offered to get the module in their institution and be distributed by the barangay

captains where the students were and asked them to enroll again (Amancio 2021).

Lesson learned

The first lesson they learned is they should always be flexible for faculty and

students. One size fits all does not apply to them. They have to invest in their teachers. They

need to train and listen to them. For the government, they have to address access to internet

connection because this is their main problem there (Ututalum 2021).

They reminded everyone that despite catching us off guard, the pandemic is not an

excuse to limit ourselves and lose hope. They said that they really need to collaborate with

them and not be alone because it is difficult to be alone especially this time of pandemic.

None of them is ready to face this pandemic so they should not lose hope and look into the

brighter side in every challenge they face. There is still hope and they can innovate more

(Meneses 2021).

If you look back, the COVID 19 pandemic has imposed a severe and devastating

impact in all sectors. So these effects are immensely felt in our department, they will still

continue to face a lot of challenges. He also reminded by the Filipino broom stick. When it is

whole, it is strong and that is precisely what is happening right now. So if they continue to

work together, they will surmount it (Usec. Mateo 2021).

Educational Issues in Remote Areas

Aside from literature, the researchers also reviewed some studies which were

presented in the following paragraphs. Reviewing different researches will guide in seeking

answer to the problem and in achieving the objective of the study.

In a study conducted by Jennette Rose Arcilla, the education system of the

Philippines has been highly influenced by the country’s colonial history. That history has

included periods of Spanish, American and Japanese rule and occupation. Although the

Philippine system of education has long served as a model for other Southeast Asian
countries, in recent years that system has deteriorated. This is especially true in the more

remote and poverty-stricken regions of the country.

Family Factor

At the rural areas, family is one of the factors that determine their child performance.

In this study, students in rural areas have low performance compared to students in urban

areas because it is relate to their parents education. Majority of parents in rural areas are less

educated than parents in urban areas. The family background is the most important and

weighty factor in determining the academic performance of learners (Adell, 2002: 91).

Survey found that, rural students felt no pressure to attain good performance when

their parents’ expectations towards education were low. Parental encouragement has a

positive influence towards their child performance and at rural areas most of parents did not

care about their child academic performance. Some experts believe that parent expectations

is the most influential factor affecting youth decisions to pursue education (Esterman &

Hedlund, 1995; Smith, Beaulieu, & Seraphine, 1995).

Low Socio-economic Factor

According to Jennette Rose Arcilla, the students’ background relate to the low socio

economic factor of their family also one of the factor that effect their performance in

education. Most of the students that live in rural areas come from low income family. Their

parents cannot provide them enough educational resources at home. Compared to students at

urban areas, the majority of them come from high income families and their parents are

afford to send them to their tuition classes in order to get better performance.

Rural students, they non-exposure to educational resources and it will affect their

performance compared to those who have access to such resources. Students who have

access to more resources are advantage compared to those from poor families because they

can know more about the latest developments around them thus can assist them to improve

their performance at schools (Arcilla).

Lack of Facilities and Resources

Several schools in rural areas do not have laboratories and this situation means that

students learn science by rote learning. Facilities are important in order to make the teaching

and learning process more effective. Students that live in rural areas will less expose to the

using of technology because the facilities that were provided for them are not sufficient. This

will make their learning process will be less effective and they will have less knowledge

about current issues as well as how to use technology (Arcilla, nd.).

Less Qualified Teachers

Teacher is the important role in order to create good performance students. Most of

the teacher did not want to posting in rural area because they think it will bring difficulty to

them. So, the majority of teachers that were sent to the rural areas are the new teachers that

have less experience in teaching (Arcilla).

Awoniyi (1981) remarked that there is a direct relationship between the quality of

teaching personnel and the quality of education process. Most of them did not master the

teaching technique yet because they are still new in teaching area.

The Role of Government

Government has to play a role in improving educational outcomes for rural students.

Government should provide enough facilities to the schools that located in rural areas same

as the urban schools. Besides that, government also must provide a financial support to the

students that lives in rural areas where we know that most of them come from low income

families and not affordable to gain a better education and services. Facilities that were

provided must be fair and equal treatment should be given to rural schools same like urban

schools. In addition, best educators also should be placed in rural schools because they can

help students to improve their performance (Arcilla).

The Role as a Student

 The students itself should realize the importance of education in their future lives. If

they want a better life in the future they must study hard to get a good performance. Usually

students at rural area does not care about their education and most of them dropout from

schooling. This is because they do not have motivation in their study and their parents also

did not care about their performance. So in order to overcome the gap performance between

students in rural and urban areas, rural students should set their mind that education is

important to change their lives. When they have a mindset that education is important, they

will study hard in order to get a good achievement (Arcilla).

Synthesis

The study conducted by Amancio (2021) pointed out that the students in rural area try

their best to continue their studies and also they made a lot of adjustment just for their

studies. There are a lot of students in rural areas that keep doing their best even though it’s

hard for them to make adjustments especially now that we have a pandemic and they are in

the remote areas that has limited resources. But, there’s a rural students felt no pressure to

attain good performance because their parents’ expectations towards education were low

(Esterman & Hedlund, 1995; Smith, Beaulieu, & Seraphine, 1995).

Parental encouragement has a positive influence towards their child performance and

at rural areas most of parents did not care about their child academic performance. Some

experts believe that parent expectations is the most influential factor affecting youth

decisions to pursue education (Esterman & Hedlund, 1995; Smith, Beaulieu, & Seraphine,

1995).

The students itself should realize the importance of education in their future lives. If

they want a better life in the future they must study hard to get a good performance. Usually

students at rural area does not care about their education and most of them dropout from

schooling. This is because they do not have motivation in their study and their parents also

did not care about their performance. Rural students should set their mind that education is
important to change their lives. When they have a mindset that education is important, they

will study hard in order to get a good achievement (Arcilla).

To ensure that no student is left behind, Ututalum sought the help of their local

government Units and found a way to reach out to all their affected students (Amancio 2021).

After the enrollment, there was at least 1% who did not continue to enroll. They found out

that students can't afford to get their modules (Ututalum 2021). They went to the

municipalities where their students were affected and talked to their mayor and asked for

help (Amancio 2021).

Government has to play a role in improving educational outcomes for rural students.

Government should provide enough facilities to the schools that located in rural areas.

Besides that, government also must provide a financial support to the students that lives in

rural areas where we know that most of them come from low income families and not

affordable to gain a better education and services (Arcilla).

The Government’s focus should not be on facilities, but also on teachers who teach in

rural areas. Teacher is the important role in order to create good performance students. Most

of the teacher did not want to posting in rural area because they think it will bring difficulty

to them. So, the majority of teachers that were sent to the rural areas are the new teachers that

have less experience in teaching (Arcilla). . Most of them did not master the teaching

technique yet because they are still new in teaching area (Awoniyi 1981).

The pandemic is not an excuse to limit ourselves and lose hope. They should always

be flexible for faculty and students. One size fits all does not apply to them. The COVID 19

pandemic has imposed a severe and devastating impact in all sectors. So these effects are

immensely felt in our department, they will still continue to face a lot of challenges. He also

reminded by the Filipino broom stick. When it is whole, it is strong and that is precisely what

is happening right now. So if they continue to work together, they will surmount it (Ututalum

2021; Meneses, 2021; Usec. Mateo, 2021).

CHAPTER 3

Methodology
 This chapter presents the descriptions of research methodology including research

design, co-researchers of the study, research instrument, and data gathering procedures,

ethical considerations, and qualitative data analysis.

Research Design

The researcher used the descriptive qualitative design and is phenomenological in

approach. It is a research design that employs an in-depth investigation of what experiences

mean to the people (Bliss, 2016). Creswell (2013) noted that qualitative research is typically

employed in investigating an area of interest where not much has been known about a

phenomenon. This implies that qualitative research is less concentrated on testing

hypotheses, but the description, analysis, and interpretation of a given phenomenon. This

design is suited to this study as it attempts to describe the difficulties of students in remote

areas in the Philippines during the COVID-19 time.

Johnson and Christensen (2016) explained the purpose of phenomenological research

to obtain a view into research participants’ life worlds and to understand meanings personally

constructed from their lived experiences.

Selection of Co-Participants

The co-participants were taken using a purposive sampling technique. In this

technique, the researcher specifies the characteristics of a population of interest and tries to

locate individuals who have those characteristics (Johnson & Christensen, 2014). Also,

Palinkas et al. (2015) declared that this sampling technique is widely used in qualitative

research for identifying and information-rich cases related to the phenomenon of interest.

This study involved a group of purposively and conveniently selected 5 Senior high

school Students during the school year 2020-2021. The participants were selected based on

their ability to provide the needed information and their connectivity at the time of the

conduct of this study.

 Furthermore, it should be noted that this sample does not represent the entire

population, but it is considered acceptable to demonstrate the purpose of this study. The

researchers do not intend to generalize the results but to qualitatively describe the difficulties

in remote learning of students living in a remote area in the midst of pandemic.

Generation of Data

In gathering pertinent information, the researchers used eight (8) guide questions

which were used as interview questions for students. Thereafter, the researchers approached

the ten (10) senior high school students in remotes area and explain the endeavor of

their inquiry and the purpose of the interview.

They utilized the following interview questions for senior high schools students: 

1. As a student, what will be the possible impact of the new learning in your area?

2. What challenges or difficulties do you encounter especially you are living in remote

areas?

3. How do you overcome/face those difficulties or challenges?

Interview Schedule

The data were collected using an electronic survey method through Google Form

from November 22 to 26, 2021. According to Andrews et al. (2003), it can be designed in

numerous online programs, saves energy typically demanded in long surveys and gathers

qualitative information. The electronic survey in this study consisted of open-ended questions

regarding the lived experiences of students living in remote areas in the midst of pandemic.

The online survey in this study was done by first, asking the consent of the target

participants. The researchers explained that considering the current situation, their

involvement is not compulsory. It was also stressed that if they participate, their identity will

remain anonymous and their responses will be analyzed. The link to the online questionnaire

was posted on the discussion board of a learning management system.

 Due to the availability of the co-participants, only ten were interviewed. Although,

there are some days were two to three participants scheduled the interview, the researcher

only interview one participant in every single session. The data collection was conducted for

two weeks. Each co-participant had a scheduled interview.

Ethical Considerations

The ethical guidelines as specified in the Research Manual of the school was

followed by the researchers as those ethical considerations were taken into account

throughout this paper. The interview was participated in voluntarily by the senior high

school students and the lived experiences shared by them. The informed consent of the

respondents was sought by the researchers explaining to them the importance/significance

and objectives of the study. The data and information gathered was kept in confidentiality.

The works of researchers of other authors were properly recognized.

For this study, which intended to look in to the lived experiences of students, no

question that can cast insult on their capabilities was included in the sub-questions. In

addition, the sub-questions are constructed in such a way that there is no discrimination or

any reference to any specific religion or organization.

Treatment of Qualitative Data