Even with the full implementation of face-to-face classes nationwide by Nov. 2, the Department of Education-Cordillera plans to implement various learning modalities in the region.
DepEd-CAR Director Estela Cariño said academe officials are looking at the possibility of mixing online and offline learning with face-to-face classes.
“With the full implementation of face-to-face classes, it does not mean that all of the learners will go to school from Monday to Friday. Let us not put to waste the technology we have developed, especially for learners coming from a distance,” Cariño said.
In a press conference held in Bauko, Mountain Province last week, Cariño said the different schools divisions superintendents are studying the modalities that would work in their areas.
In some areas, learners can go to school for three days and the other two days would be for offline studies. For the offline studies, learners would make use of the learning apps earlier introduced as part of the hybrid learning.
Through the apps, the learners can also check their own work, which can also help ease the load of teachers.
The apps were all part of the learning package in DepEd-CAR’s Project HYTEQ or Hybrid Learning using Technology with Equity and Quality. The goal of the ongoing project is to provide schools with technologies needed for them to implement offline and online strategies in their distance learning.
The lessons from the pandemic need to be put into action with the opening of classes that is why the situation of learners who are living far from their schools needs to be considered, Cariño said.
She urged teachers, parents, and the different local government units to support the agency’s endeavor in maintaining hybrid learning to help learners.
“There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach but we will do this little by little, with the help of our stakeholders, that’s not difficult to do,” she said.
DepEd Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio has issued DepEd Order 34, s. 2022 which mandates all public and private schools for the full implementation of face-to-face classes by Nov. 2. This is regardless of the Covid-19 alert levels in their respective areas.
But DepEd will abide in the event the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases recommends the suspension of in-person classes due to the surge in Covid-19 cases. – Ofelia C. Empian
