By Merlina Hernando-Malipot
As part of its preparations for the formal opening of classes in August for School Year (SY) 2020-2021, Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones has created a Learning Resources and Platform Committee to oversee availability of quality and appropriate learning materials for learners in the basic education level.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones
(DepEd / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
The Committee was created to ensure that the “necessary platforms or technologies” whether printed, digital online or offline, television, and radio are “engaged or made available in a timely and efficient manner.”
The Committee is co-chaired by Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction Diosdado San Antonio and Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Josephine Maribojoc.
In the recently-issued order, Briones also directed the adoption of the Basic Education-Learning Continuity Program (BE-LCP) to provide clear guidance to all its offices, schools, learners, parents, and stakeholders.
The BE-LCP is a “package of education interventions” that will respond to basic education challenges brought about by COVID-19. Briones said that the BE-LCP was developed to protect the health, safety and well-being of learners, teachers and personnel and prevent the further transmission of COVID-19.
The BE-LCP also aims to ensure learning continuity through K-12 curriculum adjustments, alignment of learning materials, deployment of multiple learning delivery modalities, provision of corresponding training for teachers and school leaders, and proper orientation of parents or guardians of learners and to facilitate the safe return of teaching and non-teaching personnel and learners to workplaces and schools, taking into consideration the scenarios projected by the Department of Health (DOH) and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Philippines (IATF).
Briones stressed that the BE-LCP was also developed to “be sensitive to equity considerations and concerns, and endeavor to address them the best we can” and link and bridge the BE-LCP to DepEd’s pivot to quality and into the future of education - under the framework of Sulong EduKalidad and Futures Thinking in Education.