Home⇛Journal of Education, Management, and Development Studies⇛vol. 3 no. 1 (2023)

ALPAS (ALleviating PAndemic Severity) Through Foresight: Capping the Digital Divide

Romeo B. Sotto Jr. | April Z. Luzon | Seth B. Barandon | Jocelyn O. Jintalan | Maria Joy I. Idian | Estelito R. Clemente | Marlon S. Pontillas | Harold Jan Terano | Juvy Bustamante | Filmor J. Murillo

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

Everyone has lost their footing due to the pandemic. The academic community needed to be prepared, leaving professors and students without direction. The goal at the time was to overcome the calamity of educational discontinuity. Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 – The education goal aims “to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” relative to this SDG. With the surge of the pandemic, the digital divide has become prominent, altering the educational landscape across public and private institutions at all levels. In the Bicol region, education was delivered in various forms and variability; predicting the future through strategic foresight could propel the region to a transformed future. This paper discusses in detail the status of education in the region and the possible scenarios using Jim Dator’s Future Scenario Archetypes, Causal Layered Analysis, and Scenario Planning Plus. Four plausible scenarios have surfaced in this paper: STUG-nation of Education, Unstable and Disarray of Educational elements, Flowing-restrained Education, and ORAGON Education. It requires multiple drivers, as examined through the PESTEL, including political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal aspects. This study proved useful in crafting and anticipating the future scenarios of Bicol Region’s education. Preliminary as it may, this study highlighted important building blocks of plans through foresight methods. Dator’s framework proved very useful in developing the four scenarios; using other future study tools will further amplify plausible scenarios for the education of the Bicol region and beyond.



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