As part of its preparations for the opening of classes in public schools on Oct. 5, the Department of Education (DepEd) assured that dry-runs and simulations for blended/ distance learning are ongoing nationwide.

“Most of the school divisions offices of respective regions have already conducted their respective dry runs and simulations,” said DepEd Undersecretary Revsee Escobedo citing data as of Aug. 24.

Dry-runs and simulations for blended/distance learning, Escobedo said, are being conducted in various DepEd regional offices (ROs) and school division offices (SDOs) nationwide to ensure the readiness of schools, teachers, and students for the School Year (SY) 2020-2021 opening.

DepEd data showed that over 100 SDOs have conducted their dry-runs and simulations before Aug. 24. Some SDOs have also scheduled dry-runs prior to the Oct. 5 school opening. 

“Most of them have completed the dry-runs but they are doing it again because of the gaps they saw during the dry-runs and they will try to improve these,” Escobedo said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Aside from the gaps, Escobedo said that some of the regional offices have also identified “best practices” that emerged during the dry-runs in their division offices. For instance, in Region 10, the schools noted that the use of Electronic Learner Enrollment and Survey Form or E-LESF is helpful in tracking or monitoring their students. 

“The E-LESF significantly provides for more efficient information dissemination and more accessible learners’ profile,” Escobedo said. “And because of this, our teachers will not have a hard time developing the weekly home learning plan.” 

Escobedo noted that there are also ROs and SDOs that continuously conduct dry-runs and simulations to fill possible issues or gaps when the school opening formally starts. 

“Dry runs are being held at the school level to eliminate or minimize the issues during the past dry runs or address gaps and to observe the implementation of their newly-developed learning continuity plans and systems,” he explained. 

The conduct of dry-runs and simulations, Escobedo noted, helped increase the number of enrollees in some regions. 

“Dry runs boosted the confidence of the parents that their children will have opportunities to continuously learn through various learning modalities amidst the COVID-19 situation,” he said.

Escobedo noted that in Region VIII, for instance, “numerous parents have become confident right after witnessing the simulations in the regions and they decided to enroll their children for this coming school year.”

DepEd national enrollment data as of Aug. 28 showed that the total number of enrollees for School Year (SY) 2020-2021 has reached 23.91 million in both public and private schools. This, DepEd said, is 86.03 percent of the total enrollment in SY 2019-2020.