Education Secretary Leonor Briones said that the Department of Education (DepEd) tried to respond to the challenges in education amidst the raging pandemic in School Year (SY) 2020-2021.
“We developed a system which demands perfection from the public in a very imperfect situation where the factors for planning, for adjusting cannot be predicted,” Briones said during the Laging Handa public briefing on Monday, July 19.
In a very imperfect situation, Briones said that DepEd was forced to react as quickly as it can. “We are not saying that we came out with a perfect answer to an imperfect situation and perfect expectations from the public who want perfection from us - so, that has to be given emphasis,” she added.
As to the initial findings on the implementation of distance learning, Briones said that so far, there are “mixed results.”
“From the first day that we open classes under blended learning, we realized that face-to-face, limited as it is, has major contribution to the learning process of the child,” Briones said - noting that in-person learning is a part of the blending of the learning.
“The result of the assessment, of course, is mixed because our blended learning is not complete and we would be the first also to recognize that because the element of face-to-face is not there,” Briones said.
However, Briones believed that while the system was not perfect, DepEd - and the entire education system - has learned so much from this first experience.
“We have never done it before - this Department of Education has done many things, which has never been done before and we report, and so we report, we seek advice and we are given feedback,” Briones said.
“We take it very seriously because the learning process its not just for DepEd but for everybody as well,” she added.
With the approval of President Duterte, the SY 2021-2022 will start on Sept. 13.
To allay the fears and concerns of parents on the safety of their children, Briones said that blended or distance learning will still be implemented in the upcoming school year.
“The children will not be in danger, the teachers will not be exposed because it’s still blended learning,” Briones said.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2021/07/19/deped-on-sept-13-school-opening-its-still-blended-learning/