Full in-person learning back in November
THE Department of Education yesterday said school year 2022-2023 for public elementary and secondary schools will open on August 22 under the blended learning system and will transition to full face-to-face classes in November.
DepEd Order No. 34 issued yesterday by Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte Carpio said: “The School Year 2022-2023 shall formally open on Monday, August 22, 2022 and shall end on July 7, 2023.
“There will be 203 school days or as may be determined by further issuances in case of changes in the school calendar due to unforeseen circumstances,” the order added.
At the same time, the DepEd said it will ask for P800 billion in funding next year, with DepEd Undersecretary Epimaco Densing explaining this will be the subject of discussion with the Department of Budget and Management.
“Hopefully, the DepEd will be able to get the whole budget,” Densing said, adding the additional funding will be used to raise the pay of teachers.
At the House, the Makabayan bloc led by Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) party-list Rep. France Castro filed House Joint Resolution No. 4 seeking a P32 billion supplemental budget for the DepEd, the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and select State Universities and Colleges (SUCs).
Castro said the additional budget will provide additional funding of maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) of public schools to enable them to sufficiently prepare for the resumption of full face-to-face classes.
The DepEd order said that “private schools, state universities and colleges that offer basic education may follow DepEd’s new school calendar, provided they start classes not earlier than the first Monday of June and not later than the last day of August.”
Enrollment will be from July 25 until August 22 although the DepEd said it will release a separate set of guidelines on the matter.
Preparations for the new school year under the Brigada Eskwela program will be held from August 1 to 26 while the Oplan Balik Eskwela program will be on August 15.
The DepEd order stressed that all public and private schools should be holding five days of face-to-face classes every week by November.
“Starting November 2, 2022, all public and private schools shall have transitioned to five days of in-person classes. After the said date, no school shall be allowed to implement purely distance learning or blended learning except for those that are implementing Alternative Delivery Modes,” the order added.
The DepEd, however, did not address the issues raised by the Alliance of Concerned Teachers and the Teachers Dignity Coalition, which earlier called on the department to ensure the safety of teachers and students amid the persistent threat posed by the pandemic before ordering a return to face-to-face classes.
The DepEd said all schools should comply with the pre-pandemic regulatory permits and licenses, as required by law or ordinances. It also said the transition to face-to-face classes would bring about stress and challenges for students.
“Hence, providing psychosocial support during the first week of the school year is imperative in promoting, protecting and prioritizing the learners’ socio-emotional well-being, and developing their coping skills,” the order said.
All public schools that have already started holding five-day in-person classes will continue doing, the DepEd said.
The DepEd stopped in-person classes in early 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with schools shifting to blended learning, which features the use of modules and online or virtual learning to deliver education to students.
The DepEd allowed the gradual resumption of face-to-face classes in late 2021.
As of June 16, 32,787 or 72.66 percent of public schools in the country have started conducting face-to-face classes, the DepEd said, while 1,063 private schools are implementing in-person classes, equivalent to only 8.60 percent of the total number.
MISMATCHED SKILLS
President Marcos wants to revisit the country’s education curriculum and eventually introduce needed changes to ensure that students are equipped with skills that match the needs of different industries and employment firms.
Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said Marcos is “fully supportive” of proposals to review and reform the educational curriculum after concerns about workers’ skills, competencies, and the way the Philippines produces its graduates were raised during the Cabinet meeting yesterday.
“Among the suggestions to address these standing issues include a reform of the current curriculum since the rise of automation has posed a threat to many jobs,” Angeles said.
Trade Secretary Alfredo Pascual said the Department of Trade and Industry will collaborate closely with the DepEd, Commission on Higher Education, and TESDA to work on the “skills development, reskilling and upskilling of Philippine workforce.”
In his report to the Cabinet, Pascual said that due to the need to instill basic skills among students, his department is coordinating with different universities to develop a “micro-credentialing system” that would enable students to catch up with fast-changing technological advancements and at the same time produce more graduates that are qualified for the needs of the time.
“We’re developing or helping universities develop this system of micro-credentialing because technology is changing very fast. There is a need for workers to update themselves, to reskill or upskill,” he said.
Pascual also suggested that the Philippines should send Filipino teachers abroad for training, similar to the practice of Vietnam which sends its teachers to the United States and Europe for advanced studies.
P800B ADDITIONAL FUNDING
The P800 billion funding, if granted, would be a huge leap from this year’s P631.77 billion, though it is still a 6.34 percent hike from the DepEd’s 2021 budget of P594.11 billion.
The DepEd, which has initially proposed a P1.37 trillion budget this year, has six attached agencies, namely, the Early Childhood Care and Development Council, National Book Development Board, National Council for Children’s Television, National Museum, Philippine High School for the Arts, and the National Academy of Sports.
Densing said a big chunk of the proposed P800 billion 2023 budget would go to teachers’ compensation or a salary increase.
Before she stepped down from her post, Education Secretary Leonor Briones called on her successor to prioritize the Last Mile Schools Program aimed to address the gaps in resources and facilities of schools located in geographically isolated and disadvantaged, and conflict-affected areas.
Briones said under the said program, the DepEd and its local and international partners were able to provide 46,957 laptops and computers, 33,709 tablets and 14,401 television sets to schools in far-flung areas of the country but she said more investment is needed.
HOUSE MOVE
“It is high time that the government prioritizes education. With the Department of Education’s target of having 100 percent face-to-face classes by November this year, the government must ensure schools are capable of equipping themselves for the safe return of 100 percent in-person schooling,” Castro said.
Castro said the group filed the measure because teachers are demanding that Congress doubles the budget for MOOE of schools, pointing out that the fund can be taken from the P440 billion collected from the excise taxes on oil products.
The budget allocation for the MOOE of DepEd schools for 2022 amounts to a total of P30,061,113,000 while P835,610,000 was also appropriated under the Department of Science and Technology for the MOOE of Philippine Science High School.
Castro also filed House Bill No. 1783 “mandating the highest budgetary priority to education by setting aside at least six (6) percent of the Gross Domestic Product to agencies and instrumentalities with mandates directly related to education.”
“Giving this bill a priority to be passed into law is making education a top priority of the government,” Castro said. “For the longest time, our public expenditure on education as a percentage of our GDP remains below the higher limits of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) standards of at least six percent of the GDP,” she said.
Instead of the automatic appropriation for debt servicing, Castro said the government “should invest on education, on our youth.” “Automatic appropriation should be on services for the people. It’s about time that we repeal PD 1177 or the automatic appropriation of debt servicing which “amounted to P1.29 trillion for FY 2022,” Castro said. — With Jocelyn Montemayor and Wendell Vigilia
