Department of Education (DepEd) Central Luzon affirms its readiness for the opening of school year 2021-2022 on September 13.
This, as DepEd obtained an average of 81.19 percent advanced level of readiness, citing that all 3,656 public elementary and secondary schools in the region are prepared for the opening of classes.
“Although the past school year has not been easy for us, especially for the teachers and school administrators, that is when we saw our strength and resilience. The lessons of the previous school year were also used by the department to better deliver education to our students this school year,” DepEd Regional Director May Eclar said.
Meanwhile, factors that still need to be given attention before the school opening are enrollment; learning resources; and learner support and well-being.
“To date, DepEd Region III registered a total of 1,854,717 enrollees in all sectors or 66% of last year’s enrollment. This equates to 69% of the projected enrollment of 2,699,515,” Eclar said.
For her part, Education Program Supervisor Librada Rubio cited DepEd’s shift toward digitization through different initiatives to cater the needs for possible transition.
“Our Schools Division Offices have already started giving storage devices where the soft copies of self-learning modules are stored. This is to reduce the use of paper for modules. Also, we utilized TV and radio-based instructions,” Rubio said.
DepEd also partners with the Department of Information and Communications Technology in the conduct of webinars to aid teachers, especially those in far-flung areas, improve their information and communications technology capabilities.
In addition, DepEd also cited the support of local government units in the blended learning by providing supplies, printing equipment, and internet services to different schools within their localities.
As part of DepEd’s preparedness, Department of Health Region 3 Health Education and Promotion Officer Theresa Marie Bondoc reminded teachers who will report to school for modules distribution to always observe safety protocols and complete the two doses of vaccination to have full protection against COVID-19. (PIA-3 )
