The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has spread worldwide, affecting almost all countries and territories. In education, the pandemic wreaked havoc on its system, affecting nearly 1.6 billion students in over 200 countries. In the Philippines, ensuring the welfare of more than 27 million students in basic education calls for unwavering dedication despite the current health crisis. Through DepEd Order No. 12 s. 2020 titled “Adoption of the Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan for School Year 2020-2021 in the Light of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency”, various learning modalities aimed at maintaining the delivery of high-quality education to Filipino learners were introduced. Among those different distance learning modalities, modular learning is the most popular type (Bernardo, 2020). 

In a survey conducted by Social Weather Stations (SWS) in March 2021, for families with children enrolled in school for SY 2020-2021, 89% of them perceived modular learning to be “more difficult” than traditional face-to-face instruction (Mercado, 2021). Students had difficulty with self-studying, and parents lacked the knowledge to academically guide their child/children (Herliandry et al., 2020).  

Locally, this scenario is also deemed true at the Mahayag School of Arts and Trades. Learning loss was most pronounced among students from disadvantaged homes (Engzell et al., 2021). With these, a Special Support Strategy (SSS) was created with the drive to address the learners’ struggles. It is a strategy to lighten the burden on students to achieve meaningful learning in this new normal time.  This strategy supports learners from families with low educational attainment through three primary approaches: the Buddy System, Teacher-KaPurok Sympathy, and the Foster Family Approach. The Buddy System pairs struggling students with academically capable peers nearby to assist with learning. Teacher-KaPurok Sympathy involves teachers or community members providing guidance with support from the local barangay. The Foster Family Approach engages well-educated families within the community to aid struggling students. The chosen method prioritizes both effective learning support and the students’ health and safety by minimizing unnecessary movement.  

The study seeks to establish a claim on the impact of the Special Support Strategy (SSS) on students learning through modular distance modality. A mixed method concurrent triangulation research design was utilized for twenty (20) Grade 12 students of Mahayag School of Arts and Trades, SY 2020-2021, as the study’s participants, to determine the impact of the devised intervention.