While it strives to ensure education continuity amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the Department of Education (DepEd) vowed not to tolerate acts of dishonesty and cheating under the distance learning set-up.

DepEd Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction Diosdado San Antonio, during a televised public briefing on March 5, said that the agency does not tolerate “distance cheating” among teachers and students.

“Iyon naman po ay pinapatingnan, papatingnan natin sa ating mga kasama at magpapa-validate tayo ng mga naulat. (We are looking into this, we are asking our personnel to check on this and validate the reports),” San Antonio said.

Without face-to-face classes, 26.6 million students are currently under home-based learning.

When DepEd announced in October that lessons will be delivered using alternative delivery learning modalities, there were concerns from various quarters that students might resort to “distance cheating.”

During a Senate hearing on March 3, DepEd was asked to investigate reports of “sagot for sale” scheme wherein some individuals are allegedly offering paid services to answer the self-learning modules (SLMs) of students. San Antonio, on the other hand, maintained that DepEd has been very clear against possible distance cheating under the current learning set-up.

He also appealed to parents not to patronize such schemes because it does not promote good values among their children.

“Ang maliwanag po simula’t simula, binigyang-diin din natin na hindi puwedeng gawin ito kasi hindi ito makakatulong sa pagturo ng honesty, pagiging honest ng mga kabataang Pilipino kung ang mga magulang mismo ang mamimili o ang tutulong sa pagbigay ng sagot. (What is clear from the beginning, we emphasized that this is not allowed because it will not help teach honesty among the Filipino youth especially if the parents themselves are the buyers or will help give the answer),” San Antonio said.

Meanwhile, San Antonio also reminded DepEd’s personnel - especially teachers - not to engage in such acts.

San Antonio, who used to teach before assuming a key DepEd post, said that it is unimaginable for teachers to do something like this.

“Hindi po talaga ito pinapayagan at ang mapapatunayan po siyempre sa mga kapwa guro natin na nagbenta at siya ang gumawa ng sagot para sa sarili niyang estudyante dadaan sila sa proseso ng administrative cases namin (This is not allowed so if our fellow teachers are proven to sell the made the answers he or she made for their own students, they will go through the process of our administrative cases),” he added.