The Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday assured preparations are in full swing ahead of the Oct. 5 school opening, nationwide.
DepEd, in a statement, said that all concerned units at the Central Office, regional offices, and schools division offices are conducting various activities and initiatives to ensure the school opening will be as orderly as possible.
DepEd said that it is “continuously preparing for the opening of classes” as teachers are engaged in various upskilling activities, including module and worksheet writing, messenger and Google classroom, and mental health, resilience and stress care.
Parents, DepEd said, are also invited to attend sessions on parenting in the midst of pandemic, “Virtual Ugnayang Paaralan-Tahanan” and parents orientation and consultation.
Meanwhile, DepEd commended the initiatives of various local government units (LGUs) and their respective leaders for their support to the Basic Education - Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP) of the agency.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones, in a virtual press briefing on Aug. 24, extended her gratitude to LGUs and its leaders for supporting the continuity of education among students in their respective areas.
In particular, DepEd cited the efforts of the City of Manila for providing laptops and gadgets to the students and teachers.
Briones thanked Manila City Mayor Francisco ‘Isko Moreno’ Domagoso for his “aggressive and persistent” efforts related to education.
To support learning continuity this coming school year, the Manila City local government is providing its schools P1.2 billion-worth of learning continuity packages.
On August 26, Domagoso and DepEd Undersecretary Alain Del Pascua led the turnover ceremony for the initiative. The Manila LGU distributed 11,000 laptops with pocket Wi-Fi for teachers, 136,950 tablets and 296,000 data sim cards for students.
With an allocation of P1.234 billion from the Special Education Fund (SEF), Manila LGU is set to provide each household with one tablet and each Manila public school teacher with one laptop on top of a 10 gigabytes of data allocation per month for students and teachers.
The said gadgets for the conduct of distance learning were received by Ma. Magdalena Lim, Division Schools Superintendent of Manila, as part of the preparation of their division for the formal opening of classes on Oct. 5.
DepEd said that the actual distribution of the gadgets will start on September 1 for elementary and secondary schools. Meanwhile, orientations for learners on the proper use of the self-learning modules and gadgets and webinars regarding cyber ethics and mental health will be conducted after the distribution.