School Leaders’ Resilience amidst Pandemic in the Division of Laguna, Philippines

COVID-19 is an unprecedented event that brings adverse effects to different countries, including the Philippines. This disease greatly affected education in the Philippines from March 2020 up to present. School heads’ resiliency is one possible solution so that learning would continue. The Department of Education issued DepEd Order (DO) No. 012, s. 2020, stipulating that DepEd shall employ multiple learning delivery modalities (LDMs) to ensure the continued provision of learning opportunities to its learners, while protecting the health and safety of both its personnel and learners. This study looked into how school leaders in the DepEd Division of Laguna maintained themselves resilient. Additional highlight of this study is the investigation of how the school heads are implementing their enhanced school learning continuity plan this school year 2021-2022. With 73 school leaders participating in this study, it was found out that they have a very high resiliency level in four aspects – community cohesiveness, sustained communication, prioritizing mental and psychosocial health, and welcoming feedback. Also, the following themes were constructed: (1) All are called for unity, (2) Communication is what makes a group or team strong, (3) Health is wealth; prioritize it. (4) Listen to what feedback and survey say; they matter, (5) Proper delivery and monitoring takes learning at its best, (6) Quality technical assistance can breed quality learning, (7) Activities become meaningful when resources are shared, (8) Pandemic calls for alternative arrangement to safeguard health, (9) Support is essential, (10) Make them feel at home, not just special, and (11) Acquisition of fund is as important as proper utilization. Recommendations were given focusing on projects that can be initiated to sustain resiliency.