Increasing society’s level of responsiveness requires greater education in all academic levels. For this reason, schools need to teach environmental hygiene practices that could prevent future transmission of infectious diseases. 

Michigan State University

Higher education institutions in the Philippines faced challenges with instructional delivery due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper provides recommendations for higher education’s response to the pandemic. 

- Integrate Environment and Health Courses in the Curriculum

- Strengthen Environmental Policies and Hygiene Practices

- Incorporate Online Mental Health and Medical Services

- Migrate Courses, Align Curriculum Competencies, and Scale up Teachers’ Training for Online Learning Instruction

- Strengthen Research Efforts, Data Monitoring, and Evidence Based Practices


Challenges and Opportunities for Higher Education amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Philippine Context

Toquero, C. M. (2020). Challenges and Opportunities for Higher Education amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Philippine Context. Pedagogical Research, 5(4), em0063. https://doi.org/10.29333/pr/7947 

Challenges and Opportunities for Higher Education amid the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Philippine Context Reference

Basic environmental and health courses should be integrated in the institution’s curriculum. Courses like these can develop members of society who voice environmental health concerns and call for action. These classes can also adapt and stay current with world issues, spread awareness, and improve health practices and education policies. 

Integrate Environment and Health Courses in the Curriculum

Strengthen Environmental Policies and Hygiene Practices

To ensure health practices are implemented, it is important that schools provide higher quality medical and support services. Offering free medical and mental health teleconferencing increases a student’s access to these necessary resources. This will also improve the efficiency of assessments and allow students to seek further treatment sooner if needed. 

To increase the understanding of COVID-19, universities should create management protocols and flowcharts that advertise the university’s medical services and list COVID symptoms, risks, and recommendations to receive medical care. This could prevent further transmission. The university should also advertise its mental health services as a student’s success in class is impacted by their mental wellbeing.


Incorporate Online Mental Health and Medical Services

In the beginning of the pandemic, many institutions were not properly equipped to shift to online learning. Going forward, schools should be prepared to shift all courses to online learning at any time in the case that it becomes necessary once more in the future. This can be done by familiarizing students with an online format and providing teachers with sufficient training.

Migrate Courses, Align Curriculum Competencies, and Scale up Teachers for Online Learning Instruction

Research needs to be done to determine the response higher education should have to economic, employment, and educational concerns. More research is also needed to investigate COVID’s impact on education. Additionally, little research exists on mental health service provisions in higher education institutions. For this reason, universities need to collect data, provide documentation, and strengthen services using collected evidence.

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