School-based Management Challenges and Coping Strategies in the Secondary Educational System of Puerto Princesa City and Palawan during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Educators’ coping methods are becoming more widely recognized worldwide as a critical element of a resilient educational system. This study aimed to assess the educational challenges faced by school heads, teachers, and parents during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the four aspects of school-based management (SBM) practices, and to evaluate the different coping strategies adopted. A triangulation research design and a cross-sectional study approach were used, utilizing the Brief Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced (COPE) Inventory. The study was conducted in the Divisions of Puerto Princesa City (PPC) and Palawan secondary schools with a total of 735 respondents. The findings revealed that challenges were fairly evident across all four aspects of SBM practices in the PPC and Palawan Divisions. The non-parametric Wilcoxon test showed significant differences in the level of challenges encountered by secondary school heads between the two Divisions, specifically in "leadership and governance" (W=45, p-value=0.010), "curriculum and instruction" (W=114, p-value=0.000), "accountability and continuous improvement" (W=56, p-value=0.012), and "management of resources" (W=16, p-value=0.028). Results from Brief COPE indicated that the most used coping mechanism by school heads and teachers was “active coping,” with 3.65±0.42 and 3.85±0.69 respectively, while for parents, “self-distraction” (3.33±0.0) accounts the most used domain. Parents and school heads had high coping skills in the domains of “active coping,” “denial,” and “behavioral disengagement,” while “self-distraction” was also highly manifested by school heads. However, teachers had high coping skills in all 14 domains of the Brief COPE. The Wilcoxon test found no significant differences in the varying coping strategies of school head (W=97, p-value=0.982), teachers (W=118, p-value=0.370), and parents (W=119, p-value=0.334) between PPC and Palawan Divisions. This study paves opportunities to implement a customized intervention program based on the perceived needs of these stakeholders as a starting point to address the challenges they faced during the pandemic.