The Department of Education (DepEd) maintained creating modules for blended learning a “collective effort” which requires participation from teachers who will be using these in the upcoming school year.
Updates on the matter along with other school opening related concerns were discussed July 8 in the Oplan Balik Eskwela-Brigada Eskwela (OBE-BE) online press conference.
The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), in a statement issued on July 6, claimed that among pressing concerns pointed out by teachers in the field is the need for them to create modules for the implementation of blended/distance learning when “specialists” from DepEd should be doing this.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones said teachers are not being forced to create modules for their learners, admitting it is a “specialized kind of activity” that requires training.
But she emphasized the need for teachers to immerse themselves into the training deeming it "fun" as it allows them to" meet fellow teachers from other places.”
Module writing training, Briones said, is also an “opportunity for them to share."
“They are gathered together with perhaps the best teacher from this place or that place who teaches this particular subject and you get together,” she added.
“They do workshops, they do all sorts of things which are also a relief from the rigors of teaching everyday but to create something which also you will also use,” she added.
The modules, Briones said, also reflect what teachers believe should be included in these learning materials. Rather than use something that somebody made, she noted that most teachers prefer using materials they created themselves.
“That’s the essence of group work, selecting the very best teachers, having the Central Office Directors, bringing in the experts working together, sitting down together and there is no coercion involved here and usually they are very proud of their outputs and of their work,” she added.
Joint, collective effort
DepEd Undersecretary and Spokesperson Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan also stressed that the production of the self-learning modules is a “joint effort.”
The regional offices, Malaluan said, “engage a number of experts in the field” - whether they are teachers or from the Division Office and some from the Central Office - mobilizing learning resources from external partners.
“It’s a joint effort and it's part of the work we are expected to do in various capacities whether as teachers, as school leaders, as supervisors, as education program specialists in the division or districts,” Malaluan explained.
Contrary to the claims of some groups, Malaluan stressed there are “teachers who have been wholeheartedly and excitedly contributing to the work."
Malaluan commended the “teachers who have been doing their part” as the education shifts into blended or distance learning this coming School Year (SY) 2020-2021.
“They are really our frontliners in this and they are not being coerced into doing this to work with us because that’s part of the contextualization ."