The Department of Education (DepEd) will be holding a series of webinars as they recognize how the landscape of child rights might change in the learning environment amid the COVID-19 pandemic
With the theme, “Isulong! Karapatan ng Bata sa Panahon ng COVID-19,” the 14-episode webinar series will be conducted throughout the whole month of September and the first week of October. DepEd has partnered with UNICEF-Philippines, Stairway Foundation, and Save the Children Philippines to ensure that parents and teachers are well-oriented on children safety and protection.
Through the Office of the Undersecretary for Legal Affairs in collaboration with the National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP) – DepEd will hold these webinars ahead of the formal school opening on Oct. 5.
The first webinar session was held on September 7 with children’s rights in education and to development as topics. This was livestreamed on DepEdPhilippines Facebook page. The other webinar episodes will be uploaded in the page as well.
DepEd said the series of webinars aim to “capacitate” school leaders, teachers, and parents on child rights in education, child protection in education in the time of COVID-19, and positive discipline in education for parents and guardians.
As a professional development program recognized by the NEAP, the webinar series will be able to award professional development credit units to participants, following applicable DepEd issuances. With the webinar series being in line with the Basic Education-Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP) educators and teachers are especially encouraged to watch and participate in the webinar series.
The other sessions on child rights will follow on September 8, 14, and 15. Positive discipline in education episodes for parents and guardians will be held on September 9, 16, 23, and 30, and October 7. Child protection sessions will be conducted from September 28 to October 2.
Classes in public schools will formally start on Oct. 5. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis in the country, DepEd said that there will be no face-to-face conduct of classes in all basic education levels.
To ensure learning continuity, blended or distance learning will be implemented this school year (SY) 2020-2021 through various alternative delivery modalities such as modular (printed and offline), online, and television and radio-based instruction.