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FIFTY THOUSAND public schools in the Philippines open today, Monday, and students are staying home instead of going to classrooms as the government switches to distance education as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus.
On Sunday, the Department of Education (DepEd) announced that it was “very prepared” to implement the new system, under which 24 million students will receive instruction through online, digital and print modules, with the help of television and radio. .
“We are very prepared, and this was according to reports from our regional directors,” said Undersecretary of Curriculum and Instruction Education Diosdado San Antonio during a radio interview.
“When we say prepared, it means that we have already taken contingencies into account to address the problems that we will face as of Monday,” he added.
The school’s opening day was postponed twice as the government continually adjusted its response to the 2019 coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
Face-to-face classroom teaching was ultimately scrapped because it could lead to further spread of the virus.
Another DepEd official lashed out at critics who say the department “mismanaged” preparations this school year by moving the school to open twice.
“I am sure that if DepEd did nothing at all in response to this crisis, they will also call it ‘mismanaged’,” Finance Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla told a group of journalists.
Some organizations criticized the agency for failing to provide a self-study module (SLM) for every student and requiring teachers to work long hours, among other issues.
As a solution, San Antonio said DepEd plans to hire 10,000 more teachers and student support assistants.
Sevilla believes that the department “was able to respond, implement, transition and adapt quickly to the ‘new structure and arrangements’ required by this pandemic.”
“It may not be the perfect ‘100 percent ready’ that most of you expect …[but] it’s the entire DepEd’s labor of love, ”he said.
All 50,000 public schools across the country will participate in distance learning.
The 2020-2021 school year will have 205 school days. The first academic trimester begins on October 5 and ends on November 28; second quarter, from December 1 to February 6; third quarter, from February 15 to April 10; and fourth quarter, from April 12 to June 5.
Summer make-up classes could be held from June 14 to July 23 of next year.
Under the revised guidelines for assessment and grading, periodic tests that are generally scheduled each trimester will be replaced with summative assessments of student writing and performance assignments.
San Antonio recently said that the non-recurring testing policy does not apply to private schools, although they are encouraged to adopt it.
Written assignments will consist of quizzes and long units and tests, while performance assignments include skill demonstrations, group presentations, oral work, and research projects.
The department has published the weight distribution of the summative assessment components for grades 1-10.
For Languages and Araling Panlipunan (Social Studies), 40 percent of the grades will come from written assignments and 60 percent from performance assignments.
The student’s aptitude in the subjects of Mathematics and Science will be equally weighted through written work and interpretation at 50 percent.
The Musical Arts, Physical Education and Health qualifications; Edukasyong Pantahanan in Kabuhayan (Technology and Livelihood Education) will be evaluated primarily through performance (70 percent), while written works will account for 30 percent.
DepEd also launched the grading system for upper secondary school.
Students who chose the Technical / Vocational, Sports, Arts, and Design tracks will earn 70 percent of their grades derived from performance assignments and 30 percent from written assignments.
For students who are in the academic year, their work immersion and research topics will be weighted equally through written and interpretive assignments at 50 percent. All other topics will be weighted through performance assignments (60 percent) and written assignments (40 percent.
In a related development, DepEd issued two landmark policies that define professional standards for school principals.
“The changes in various national and global frameworks in education and the changing characteristics of our 21st century students call for a call to rethink our professional standards for our school principals and supervisors,” said Secretary Leonor Briones.
The national adoption and implementation of the Philippine Professional Standards for School Directors and the national adoption and implementation of the Philippine Professional Standards for Supervisors encourages 43,448 school principals and 5,550 supervisors to strive for greater competence; provide support for learning and professional development; help identify development needs; and facilitate a uniform evaluation of performance.
The standards complement the Philippine Professional Standards for Teachers (PPST) that was adopted as DepEd policy in 2017 and is now used by more than 800,000 public school teachers, Briones said.
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