DEPARTMENT of Education’s Order No. 13 (Readiness Assessment Checklist for Learning Delivery Modalities in the Learning Continuity Plan of Private Schools) detailed “non-negotiable” minimum requirements for blended learning.
It is hypocritical, to say the least. The requirements it demands from private schools are the same ones teachers and parents have been calling for in the public sector, but to which DepEd has not committed.
One thing that this list of non-negotiable elements of distance learning reveals is that DepEd recognizes the importance of such in order to ensure safe and optimal delivery of education services and its accessibility to all stakeholders. The real challenge is for the agency to bring these measures to realization with significant support from the national government.
DepEd requires private education institutions to make sufficiently available at schools gadgets and internet connection for the disposition of teachers’ duties. However, these remain scant in many public schools in urban and, especially so, in rural areas.
First off, these work under the assumption that it’s safe enough for workers to come to schools, which should be the basis for obliging physical reporting. As it is, the threat of COVID-19 remains high, hence the still limited availability of essential services like transportation. It therefore makes it unsafe and unviable to work on-site. In such cases, DepEd should provide gadgets and internet connection to individual teachers to enable them to perform their tasks, while working on ensuring the same at the school level in preparation for the safe return to schools.
DepEd has also announced multiple times that it currently has 190,754 laptops for distribution to 11% of the surveyed teachers who said they had no access to laptops. Additionally, 167,500 tablets and 54,350 computers procured last year are set to arrive “soon” while 475,650 and 634,877, respectively, are eyed to be procured for this year’s distance learning. Why then are teachers being offered laptop loans? Where did these gadgets go? What happened to DepEd’s budget that it now has to practically beg LGUs for support?
As to modular distance learning, DepEd included in its checklist the need for schools to come up with digital and printed learning modules, and to provide references/supplemental materials for distribution to learners. The issue of module-making, production, and reproduction have been among the top issues that teachers faced as they began rendering service on June 1.
DepEd shall lead in the creation and regulation of contents of learning materials. It is likewise responsible for the processing of its production and reproduction. However, the agency has decided to yet again pass this responsibility to teachers and to the private sector, despite the lack of training to do such.
DepEd must get its act together.
