BY OLIVER T. BACCAY, PIA
TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan (August 10)—The Department of Education (DepEd) Region 2 has instructed all divisions and school heads to conduct parents’ orientation on the new learning modalities that will be implemented starting August 24.
Estela Cariño, DepEd-Region 2 director, said they need to orient all parents and guardians as they play big roles in the alternative learning strategies that will be implemented considering that face-to-face has a very slim chance to be approved due to the increasing number of coronavirus disease 2019 confirmed cases nationwide.
“We continue to receive several questions, doubts, inquiries as well as misinformation about the learning modalities, so we need to orient them,” Cariño said.
Octavio Cabasag, DepEd-Region 2 Education Supervisor chief, orients media on the implementation of the alternative delivery mode that will be adopted this school opening. COURTESY OF PIA REGION 2
During the media orientation, Octavio Cabasag, DepEd-Region 2 chief of the Curriculum Learning Management Division, discussed the basic information that parents and learners should know especially on the learning materials and the modalities that they will adopt.
He said each learner from Kindergarten up to Grade 3 will receive self-learning modules and the learner may also write directly at the activity sheet in the modules.
However, due to limited funds, Grades 4 to 12 may be given self-learning modules, separate learning activity sheets and other learning materials, he added.
“For independent learners, we will give them textbooks, learning activity sheets and learning materials but for learners with difficulty, they will preferably be given self-learning modules and learning activity sheets,” Cabasag said.
He said TV/Radio-Based Instruction (RBI) can be blended with printed and digitized modules, learning activity sheets, learning materials and textbooks.
Cabasag explained that for TV/RBI module-based, the broadcaster will mention the pages on the module as a guide to the learner while for TV/RBI “stand-alone,” the broadcaster will just discuss topics or contents while activities can be done using various learning materials.
He also said TV/RBI module-based will be adopted for Kinder up to Grade 3 while stand-alone or module-based will be adopted for Grades 4 to 12.
“But the schedule for Kinder to Grade 3 is preferably in the morning while for Grades 4 to 12, it can be in an afternoon’s session and late evening,” Cabasag said.
For online learning, he said there will be an official chatbox per group of classes where teachers will upload the recorded discussion for the day in the chatbox.
“We will also include in the orientation to parents the health risk of overusing gadgets by learners that is why we emphasize that they need to follow the maximum number of minutes per day of exposure to radiation and if possible we also request the teachers to provide reminders on the harmful effects of overuse of gadgets after lessons,” Cabasag added.
Cariño said the alternative delivery mode depends on the choice of the parents and the learner and whatever is applicable in their respective areas.
She also said teachers will still be responsible for teaching the students using their preferred modality and that DepEd will hire volunteer teachers who will take charge of students who do not have anybody to guide them.