The Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepED-7) will conduct a dry run before the August 24 opening of classes on the Self-Learning Modules (SLMs) as an alternative learning delivery modality to be offered to various types of students across the region.

Salustiano Jimenez, DepEd-7 regional director, said all school divisions in the four provinces in the region are now planning to implement a trial run of the new modality between the last week of July and the second week of August.

“They will implement the dry run to be able to see ahead possible glitches and what possible problems that we can encounter and correct them right away in time that we are still preparing for the August 24 opening of classes,” Jimenez said in an interview with the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Monday.

The regional office of DepEd, he said, will provide for the necessary technical assistance on possible issues that will crop up during the trial phase of the SLMs.

Jimenez said public school administrators and teachers are now in the contextualizing stage of the SLM, to conform to the Mother Tongue Based-Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) learning process.

MTB-MLE is DepEd’s “first-language-first” education system, in which kindergarten to Grade 3 pupils begin to learn through the mother tongue (regional or provincial language) as a medium of instruction and transition to additional languages particularly Filipino and English.

“So far, DepEd in Region 7 is always on the go. There is an ongoing preparation so that we can assure that by the opening of classes on August 24, we will be able to implement the Learning Continuity Plan,” he said.

Jimenez also said the regional education agency targets to finish the reproduction of the modules under the SLM modality for the first quarter of the school year 2020 to 2021.

The integration of SLMs with the alternative learning delivery modalities is expected to help the education department ensure that all learners have access to quality basic education while face-to-face classes are still prohibited due to public health issues brought by the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

Jimenez said the region will adopt varied learning delivery modalities. Some schools may adopt the modular, television-based, radio-based instruction (RBI), blended and online, depending on the availability of medium.

He, however, sees RBI as an effective modality in the hinterland areas and islands where internet connection is a challenge, adding that even in places where there is no radio signal, DepEd will engage barangay officials in distributing modules and checking and collecting learners’ homework.

“We see human resources as challenges. Cooperation and coordination with other stakeholders in this are very important. We are now operationalizing the statement that ‘it takes the whole village to educate or raise a child. This is going to happen in this school year,” Jimenez said.

The DepEd in Central Visayas is also embarking on a “parents brigade” program to tap parents in aiming for a successful implementation of the new modes of learning. (PNA)