Department of Education-Central Visayas regional director Salustiano Jimenez (right). (PNA file photo)
CEBU CITY – A Department of Education (DepEd) official here on Monday cited the cooperation among local government units (LGUs), parents and teachers that helped increase the enthusiasm of schoolchildren to continue learning despite many challenges, after having adjusted to the new learning modalities.
In an interview, DepEd-7 regional director Salustiano Jimenez said the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis on all sectors has made the LGUs more prepared in helping learners cope with the new normal in education.
He said schoolchildren have become more eager to continue their education by keeping themselves abreast with the available technologies.
In fact, he said DepEd-7 recorded a total of 1,988,000 enrollees for the school year 2021-2022, and they expect it to increase in the coming days as public schools are still accepting new enrollees and transferees from some private schools that closed due to the pandemic.
There were 2.01 million enrollees for basic education in Central Visayas during school year 2020-2021.
The teachers, Jimenez also said, have now been equipped with the gadgets that they need such as printers, with assistance from the LGUs.
“Aside from the fund downloaded to our 19 school divisions, LGUs helped schools in their place to acquire new printers. If last year, they find a hard time to realign budget, but now they have allocated specifically for education,” he said.
Jimenez said teachers in the region’s 19 school divisions have already completed the printing of modules for the first and second quarters of the school year, while the DepEd central office has begun delivering the centralized modules for the third quarter.
In Mandaue City, most of the learners will undergo the digital learning modality as the city government gave out tablets to the students and teachers.
“What they can do in Mandaue is to save the module over the flash drive. So the notes, the tests, the activity and work sheets have to be saved in the flash drive,” Jimenez said.
There are some schools in the region that will have teacher-learner interaction using the radio and television sets, he noted. (PNA)
