DepEd assessing 300 schools for limited face-to-face classes

ABS-CBN News – Posted at Jun 21 2021 06:08 PM

MANILA — The Department of Education (DepEd) said Monday around 300 schools may participate in the dry run of limited face-to-face classes should President Rodrigo Duterte approve it.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the figure may change depending on the “behavior” of COVID-19 and its variants, and assessments from the Department of Health and Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases.

“Umabot ng 1,900 [schools ang] in-approve ng mga regional director. Pero sabi ng Senate, sobrang malaki. So na-reduce to 600. And then we reduced it further, para maging stringent talaga ang requirements, to 300 schools,” Briones said in a press conference for the DepEd’s 123rd founding anniversary.

(The regional directors approved 1,900 schools. But the Senate said it was too big. So it was reduced to 600. And then we reduced it further, so the requirements will be more stringent, to 300 schools.)

“Sa tingin ko, baka hindi lahat, hindi iyong buong bansa. Kaya sabi naman, ipi-pilot natin [ang face-to-face classes] but not necessarily for all the regions,” she added.

(I think we might not be able to hold the dry run in the entire country. We said we will have a pilot ,but not necessarily for all the regions.)

The DepEd will consider the readiness of school facilities, approval of local government units, consent of parents, and transportation, among others, in considering the limited reopening of schools, Briones said.

The agency was supposed to hold the dry run earlier this year but Duterte cancelled it over fears of more infectious coronavirus variants.

Briones reiterated that learning would continue in the next school year even as she acknowledged that the blended system implemented since last year was “not perfect.”

“But choosing between blended learning and no learning at all, total lockdown, there is no choice,” she said.

Since the current school year started in October last year, students have been studying from their homes through printed and digital modules, online classes, at educational programs aired over TV and radio.

But many teachers, parents and children have raised complaints over distance learning, such as uneven access to technology and unreliable internet connection.

Errors have also been spotted in the DepEd’s learning modules and DepEd TV episodes.

Diosdado San Antonio, DepEd’s undersecretary for curriculum and instruction, said home-based learning would continue to be an option for learners even after the pandemic.

“We hope that post-COVID-19, when the new, the better, or the best normal is set in the Department of Education, we will recognize that it’s not just face-to-face classes that will be the ways for learners to be able to learn. We will allow learners who opt to do home-based learning at certain days,” San Antonio said in the same press conference.

To improve the distance learning set-up for the next school year, Briones said the DepEd would focus on assessing students’ performance.

San Antonio, meanwhile, assured that the agency was looking into learning resources to ensure that the modules are free from errors.

“We are now in the midst of doing an analysis of the self-learning modules that would still be reused,” he said.

The agency has yet to announce a final date for the start of School Year 2021-2022, which President Rodrigo Duterte will decide on.

Briones reiterated that Duterte can choose to open the school year in late August or September.

SOURCE: https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/06/21/21/deped-300-schools-limited-face-to-face-classes