March 29, 2024

With no schools in the Cordillera taking part in the limited face-to-face classes pilot areas nationwide, the regional Department of Education has strengthened its use of paperless learning through its Hybrid Learning using Technology with Equity and Quality or HyTEQ program.

DepEd-CAR Director Estela Cariño said the program was an offshoot of the DepEd’s bid to reduce printed modules and to implement paperless ways to efficiently conduct learning.

“The project was inspired by the systems initiated by the Cudal National High School in Tabuk City, Kalinga; Dacudac NHS in Mountain Province; and Benguet National High School which all implemented the learning management system in their areas,” Cariño said.

DepEd-CAR Information Technology Officer Jumar Yago-an said the HyTEQ combines the use of network and server technologies, learning management systems, and other open learning resources.

The department and the schools will conduct various strategies in setting up the systems. For those with Internet connections, learners would sync their gadgets in the main system in the schools to access their lessons. The learners could then bring home the lesson and could access the lessons offline. 

Yago-an said hotspots could be set up within the schools or within the community where the students could connect to access the lessons on the learning management systems of the schools.

He said there is no need for data or load when students use the hotspots.

“Almost 48 percent of our schools in the region have no Internet access that is why we need to put up hotspots and use offline technologies,” Yago-an said.

Around 62 schools in the region were identified as pilot areas for the project with eight in Abra with 285 learners; four in Apayao with 168 learners; four in Baguio city with 330 learners; 10 in Benguet with 483 learners; eight in Ifugao with 252 learners; 14 in Kalinga, 143 learners; seven in Mountain Province, 313 learners; and eight in Tabuk City with 161 learners.

Cariño said there will be a rollout for the project while P28 million was allotted for the purchase of gadgets for the learners. Learners and teachers who will take part in the project will undergo training.

“We need to compete with the mobile legends so that the learners’ lessons would also be interactive,” she said. – Ofelia C. Empian