DAVAO CITY – The Davao City division of the Department of Education (DepED) will start broadcasting its supplemental modules over 10 radio and television networks in time for the opening of classes on October 5.

This will aid in the self-learning of the students, who are enrolled in the “asynchronous” set-up, particularly those who live in far-flung communities.

In a phone interview on Tuesday, Arnold Barbasan, who heads the TV-based Instruction and Radio-based Instruction (TVBI-RBI), which created the supplemental materials, said the agency will be airing “Matuto sa Radyo” (Learn on Radio), a one-hour radio program that will feature five to seven episodes of compressed lessons on various learning areas targeting kindergarten to Grade 12 students in the region.

The airing of the learning modules will be available from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. from Mondays to Fridays over DXGN 89.9 Spirit FM-Davao, DXWT Wild FM Davao 92.3 FM, DXXL iFM Davao 93.9, DXUM Radyo Ukay 819, DXDC 621 RMN Davao, DXLL 94.7 One Radio, DXRD 711 Sonshine Radio, DXRR 1017 Radyo Rapido, Sky Cable Davao, and Solar TV.

“The DepEd entered into an agreement with these stations to play the materials in broadcast quality,” he said.

Barbasan said the supplemental materials were created by a pool of 30 writers and content producers, who were trained by fellow educators who have a background in the media industry to get the message across the young learners easily.

All materials, which could come in dramatic, informative, and instructional format, were vetted by a committee tasked to ensure quality, he added.

“The modules of the DepEd are intended for self-learning,” Barbasan said, explaining that the supplemental materials are conceptualized to aid the self-learning experience of the students.

He said the production team took two months to prepare the supplemental materials.

“The radio-based instruction is quite challenging because, of course, in radio, you are going to create a theater in the minds of the students. You need a voice artist. The editing must take into consideration all elements — the singsong. It should be enticing for the children and then, the content must be brief and concise,” he said.

He said the agency pursued this program so that schoolchildren could access additional resources for free.

“The TVBI-RBI will be a modality of DepEd that can be accessed by the children for free. The private schools have access online. Those who are in public could not go online because of the limitation in the far-flung communities. We want to cater to their needs with this modality,” he added.