"Quality education: The well being and environment of all learners and teachers"

 Quality education, Is one of the complex concepts in the worldwide setting, especially for an area like the Philippines. But why is this? For this reflection paper, We will be going through our experiences, given situations, affecting factors, challenges, and different perspectives. At the end of this reflection essay, I will be able to share the experience of me and others, and how we feel about it.

What is quality education? It is one of the 17 sustainable developments that “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” This can be said in simple terms "appropriate skills development, gender parity, provision of relevant school infrastructure, equipment, educational materials and resources, scholarships or teaching force" But what defines quality education? There is a misconception in society that Quality education means a country has a high quality of education because of the high rates of intelligent people, but this is not entirely true. The key aspects that make education high quality are the way of teaching and the provision of resources and objects that enhance students' learning, which can be as simple as assignments and group activities.

But personally, based on my experiences and those of other students. Quality education happens when the lessons that are being taught by the teachers are clear for students to understand, It is true that we may have a hard time understanding the concepts being taught but these are just the boundaries that are common among all of us. I will explain how all of these factors shape my understanding of quality education. Moreover, my previous schools had a different yet unique environment, and they have greatly shaped my understanding of the term "Quality education" from what I experienced, It is a smooth exchange of lessons and activities without having to deal with so many stressful problems, which ensures that you can apply them not only for grades but also for the greater good like contributing as a citizen of your own country. Who one day, will solve many of the major problems in the Philippines.

Now, We will be discussing a major challenge that directly and indirectly affects education quality. One of the well-known challenges faced by both students and teachers is their capacity for mental health. Even though there is a gap between the both of them in terms of being affected, they still have to face the challenges of dealing with mental health issues. The students are affected in many ways, especially the feeling discouraged from failure, Staying awake late at night because of deadlines, and many more that we have experienced ourselves. For the teachers. They must deal with the checking and grading of summative tests and Performance tasks, and depending on the size of the school, it will take them a while for them to check everything which develops stress levels gradually which often results in burnout. 

The effects of poor conditions on their mental health include depression, fatigue, and loss of concentration. And personally, from my experiences. Those things don't go best when you have multiple activities in the same week. From what I experienced, I was unable to focus during my tests because I was too tired to understand what the questions were trying to tell me and most of the time, I misinterpreted those same questions. During the times of lectures, My mind was all over the place, and was not effectively taking information from the teacher. For the cases of teachers, Examples of them being affected as well is that they have to stay late to finish a set of objectives such as checking the status of students in each class or preparing different activities and summative tests for each section. Though I am just a student, our activities are similar in that they build up stress that is difficult to control. 

However, we can actually lessen the weight of these struggles we have to face, for us to achieve the highest quality of education. A simple advice is to Study or work on small bits of your lesson and try to understand them the best you can. But we must always remember that all students must face an obstacle where their understanding and knowledge are put to the test. 

Therefore, we must take a look at the different perspectives that can be seen by students and teachers. Based on a research "Students Perception of Quality Education" " we find out about factors that affect the students' perception of quality education which solely depends on the main characteristics of the students. However, the same document discusses the causes of poor quality education in the context of the student. The lack of self-regulation and self-motivation, Sense of isolation, and the emphasis on stress. The more they experience these factors altogether, the more they participate in school work negatively. While this research focuses on the factors. I will be discussing the reasons why the students experienced them in the first place, many of the main reasons will have home as one of the sources. Your personal space or area affects your mental health as well which includes the hours of your sleep, the safety of your well-being, and many others that directly/indirectly affect you. 

For the situations of the teachers, from the research "Quality Education from Teachers’ Perspective," They face more complex challenges such as their job salary, prenatal and postnatal leave, and responsibility for preparing activities. Another major obstacle they faced was that they had different classes from different levels. and according to this research, because of the heavy overload. They work at a slower pace than the students because, unlike the learners. These teachers need to ensure that the instructions, procedures, and grading of activities are perfect and fair. Unlike the students, who keep striving for the best grade.  From what we can conclude, sometimes on the outside of both the teachers and students. They seem to be someone who always strives for their best but in the cost of dealing with personal problems on the inside. 

This is why we must remember that the environment of our surroundings is a key characteristic of quality education, even outside school grounds. This includes the environment of your home, your accessibility of materials, and receiving your basic needs. Thus, Discipline and motivation are not the only aspects of achieving the best quality of learning. Since we must consider the well-being of students and teachers. 

Technology influences the quality of education by giving us more accessibility to gathering different kinds of information, Which gives us the freedom to pick the different kinds of ways or strategies in learning materials given by the school. It also allows us to communicate with one another easily which guarantees collaborative learning with our teachers and classmates. In fact, there are a lot of applications that are designed for student use. Like notion, google doc, one note, and more. For some, this improves the efficiency of taking down important notes since you can either type or draw them! As also know that technology helps us create unique projects that can express our creativity through editing pictures and videos. However, Some top students mentioned that in the same context. Technologies aren't always the best in terms of education because of the tempting desire to be involved with distractions. Like social media and games, and even worse is the act of cyberbullying other people in many ways which can be mocking them, revealing private information, or death threats. Which affects the main challenge for both the teachers and students we have discussed negatively.

Moreover, I want to mention the era that impacted education in our history which is the quarantine period from 2020-2021. Which leads us to continue our education at our homes because of Covid-19. Which focuses on the concept of technology. That period of using technology proved to be beneficial, however just like all things. It comes with its own drawbacks. The most well-known issue when it comes to technology is plagiarism and the use of artificial intelligence. Plagiarism is an act of representing someone's work as your own. Which misleads to other people about your false skills and standards. Which can have serious outcomes in the future setting where everything is more complex and requires critical thinking. 

The use of artificial intelligence itself is not entirely a bad thing. Since you can use it to understand more about your lesson, Make yourself practice questions and make a guide structure for an essay. What is really considered a drawback of technology, is using AI as someone to replace you. What this essentially means is that You are not doing any work in your academic activities, you are letting AI do the job for you. Examples of this are using it to make a 1000-word essay, make high-quality works just from AI, or in general, solely depend on AI for everything.

In short, Technology actually positively influences the quality of education. It is just the students' choice whether or not they will use their technologies for academic or entertainment purposes. But one thing is for sure: technology is an instrument of assisting students. 

With all of these different matters addressed, We need to discuss how promoting such an important goal will contribute to the development of society. As we all know, Education prepares us for the real world, which is to work in the industrial environment. Therefore we must try our best to promote this in order to give a positive change to our society and the whole world. As I have mentioned, Mental health is one of the big problems you will deal with a few or more times in your academic journey. Therefore we must promote inclusive education, where no matter the different kinds of backgrounds each student has. They will be taught equally as according to different sources it promotes equal opportunities for all students regardless of their abilities or circumstances. And it encourages them all to express themselves, from this. We are focusing the understanding and acceptance among the students.   

We must always remember that without any kind of education. We would have no progress in the social, economic, and political development. Quality of education ensures that it will decrease problems like poverty, global warming, climate change, and many more. This is because education prepares students with knowledge and a stable status in their intellectual, emotional, and social well-being. We are being prepared for the challenges to come once we step foot in the real world. Where we can contribute to the development of our society. There are a lot of examples that show the influence of quality education on our society’s development. Like the amount of construction, I have encountered and seen in other cities. The slow increase of professionals ready to serve us and many more. 

So in conclusion, Quality education is not based on "how smart you are" but more on the choice of you applying your learnings to real-life scenarios, if whatever you learned from school applies well in adulthood. Then you can say with full confidence that the education you experienced was that of the highest quality. However, we must still be realistic and consider all the challenges we face. Which includes the mental health and environment of all. Because those things are the key to all of our actions and thinking, They are responsible for giving us the choice of putting our work with the best or without any effort.

Moreover, because of our technology standards for the current century, We must be responsible youths using them only for good intentions. If we were to keep abusing or taking advantage of the current advancements made to the point you call the work of AI our own, the

future would not be able to define our best traits as a learner. So, it's always best to use them

responsibly such as researching the current problems and finding frameworks for trying to resolve them. This very act promotes quality education. As you are solving worldwide problems that directly or indirectly affect education as a whole. This means you are preparing a safe space for those who unfortunately do not have access to as many students. By considering everything in this reflection paper, we can achieve this sustainable development goal, of not leaving anybody behind for the good of the world.