Language acquisition may come naturally for people without sensorial disabilities. But for deaf children, language acquisition happens differently and comparably delayed than hearing children. This case study made an in-depth inquiry of the communication skills of the Special Education (SPED) students in one of the community colleges in Quezon Province, Philippines. An English Proficiency Test in the areas of Vocabulary, Grammar, Reading Comprehension, Analysis (Cause and Effect; Making Inferences) and Following Directions was given to the students. A Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was also conducted to gather data regarding problems encountered in their English classes. The gathered data were tabulated using frequency and percentage for the English Proficiency Test, while Conversation Analysis for FGD. The English Proficiency results revealed that Vocabulary, Reading Comprehension and Making Inferences were the three key areas where the respondents exhibit the lowest skills. These facts point out that teaching methods need to be adjusted to suit the needs of the SPED learners because the deaf’s language formation is different in nature with that of the hearing. Thus, the researcher strongly recommends crafting a separate curriculum for the SPED students of the college.

This article aims to examine and discuss the challenges faced by the private basic education institutions in the Philippines as an effect of the Covid-19 pandemic. This pandemic has brought a dilemma to educational institutions especially when the government announced and ordered not to open face to face classes for Academic Year 2020 - 2021 until the Covid-19 vaccine. In response to this order, the Department of Education (DepEd) released department order nos. 007, 12, 13, and 14 series of 2020 instructing all basic education institutions to come up with their learning continuity plan (LCP) and health and safety protocols in the new normal in education during the pandemic. The bigger challenge is now passed on to the private basic education schools. Literature cited herein develop a framework as to the necessary measures every private basic education institutions must do in the re-opening of the schools. As there are limited studies written on the same nature, the author suggests a thorough study on the various facets of the online learning involving the children of the private basic education institutions.

Using the qualitative methods of document analysis and key informant interviews, this paper explored the Berkes & Ross (2013) framework to show a human-ecological representation in analyzing a disaster situation. The case of the 2011 flashflood in Davao City, Southern Philippines was examined, looking into a social vulnerability model as the focal point of disaster resiliency. Results show that the systems approach on the framework can be an alternative approach to the study of disaster resilience, combining the ecological, psychological and developmental resilience vis-à-vis the role of the institutions and the agencies involved using the community as the central actor for the immediate response to the disaster. Moreover, this analysis showed that the integration of cultural factors can contextualize disaster mitigation. Disaster resiliency at the community levels may be further enhanced using an integrative model with a “participatory bottom-up” approach.