READY TO FACE ADOLESCENTS IN TIMES OF NEED

MARIJO OLIVA A. LLOBRERA

Personnel of the Department of Education, teachers and non-teaching personnel, who are frontliners in schools, should always be ready to face adolescents in need of help no matter the circumstances. This is the rationale behind an online training for the Foundational Course on Adolescent Health conducted by DepEd through the Bureau of Learner Support Services-School Health Division (BLSS-SHD), in partnership with the Department of Health (DOH) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Philippine Country Office. With technical assistance from the Society of Adolescent Medicine, Inc. (SAMPI), Plan International Philippines, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the training is aimed to capacitate DepEd teaching and non-teaching personnel in adolescent development and services for adolescent learners. The four-day foundational course was provided for all Adolescent Reproductive Health (ARH) focal persons from various school divisions and regional representatives across the country. The activity coincided with the celebration of the International Adolescent Health Week, allowing primary care providers to support learners as they transition from childhood to adulthood, physically and mentally, amid a life shaped by a pandemic to becoming independent individuals as this year’s theme states. The ARH Education is in support of DepEd’s commitment under R.A. 10354 or the Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act of 2012, which mandates the institution to deliver a sustainable and age- and development-appropriate reproductive health education and training for educators to create an inclusive and integrated Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Education in formal, informal, and indigenous learning. The Adolescent Reproductive Health is one of the flagship programs under the Oplan Kalusugan sa DepEd, which is the convergence of DepEd’s school health and nutrition programs. Other programs under the OK sa DepEd are the WASH in Schools Program, the National Drug Education Program, School-Based Feeding Program, School Mental Health, and Medical, Dental, and Nursing Services.

The author is Teacher

-oOo

III at San Carlos San Luis National High School