The Department of Education (DepEd) in Eastern Visayas is set to welcome on Monday over 1.3 million enrollees for school year 2020-2021.
In a phone interview on Saturday, DepEd regional office head Ramir Uytico said the current enrollment is 91.74 percent of the total enrollees last year, including students of the Alternative Learning System.
“We have the highest enrollment rate among the 16 regions in the country. This is a manifestation of our commitment, perseverance, and resilience to continue education despite the health crisis,” he told the Philippine News Agency.
In compliance with the directive that no face-to-face classes will be held due to the threat of coronavirus disease (Covid-19), DepEd will adopt the distance learning using the printed or digitized modules as primary learning modality.
Out of 4,471 public and private schools in the region, 4,172 will implement the modular distance learning, 84 for the radio-based instructions (RBIs), 136 for the television-based instructions (TVIs), and 198 for the online distance learning.
“Reproduction of modules is still ongoing. Our target is to print modules for each student covering the first two weeks of classes. In the event that the modules are not available yet, the teachers can utilize learning activity sheets, worksheets, e-books, textbooks and other learning resources,” Uytico said.
He added that the region also has 162 episodes ready for rollout in the RBI, 45 for the TVI, and 94 online modules for those with internet access.
“The series of preparations from crafting of continuity plans, training of teachers, orientation of parents, printing and reproduction of learning materials, dry-runs of all schools, have been done for us to be assured that despite our limitations we can still do great,” Uytico said.
The education department assured that safety and health of students and teachers will be its primary concern.
To date, the region has confirmed a total of 4,826 cases since March, including 4,138 recoveries and 46 deaths, based on the monitoring report of the Department of Health. (PNA)
