An official of the Department of Education (DepEd) on Thursday said that school officials will be reminded in the implementation of distance learning delivery modalities (DLDMs) to help ensure that students and their parents will be able to adjust accordingly.
DepEd Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction Diosdado San Antonio told the Manila Bulletin that schools and its officials - particularly in the public system - “will be reminded” on the existing strategies to be used in the implementation of learning delivery modalities.
Some parents raised various concerns on the alternative learning delivery modalities being implemented this school year.
Instead of physically going to school and attending their classes inside the classroom, millions of students stayed inside their houses when classes for School Year (SY) 2020-2021 formally started this week.
To ensure learning continuity, DepEd has instructed schools to implement a distance learning approach through the use of printed or offline modules, online, and television and radio-based instruction. Schools were also allowed to combine or “blend” these modalities depending on the capability of the students and their parents.
According to DepEd, the “most preferred modality” among the options in the Basic Education-Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP) is the modular learning. Based on the Learner Enrolment Survey Form (LESF) gathered, there are 9,424,925 students who chose modular distance learning.
However, some parents - who chose printed modular learning - reported that their children are still being asked to go online by logging in to Google Classroom “at least once a week.”
Many parents have also raised concerns on teacher-advisers who are asking their children to create Facebook accounts to join the different chat groups via FB Messenger to get updates. Given this set up, they claim they “might still be forced to buy gadgets and set aside extra money for the load or mobile data” even if they have chosen the printed modules.
As a response, San Antonio said that there is no such directive from DepEd. “That is not what we said, the printed modular distance learning modality can be done without using other resources,” he explained.
San Antonio added that while “using available means of communication between the teacher and the learners is allowed,” this “should not be compulsory for all learners.”
DepEd has earlier urged the parents to provide guidance to their children in this new learning set up. However, many parents said that they are “overwhelmed” with the new learning modalities - especially those who do not have the capability to teach their children.