Deped readies Oct. 5 opening of classes in face of virus, budget cut challenges
THE Department of Education (Deped) on Tuesday said the enrollment for school year 20202021, which is set to open on October 5, has already reached 24.4 million.
During the briefing on Deped’s P568-billion budget for 2021, Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones said of the 24.4 million learners, 22.31 million students are from public schools, representing 98.85 percent of all expected enrollees from public schools.
Learners from private schools, the education chief said, have now reached 2.08 million. Briones earlier said the migration of learners from private schools to public schools has stopped at 398,930 in the past two weeks.
“When Covid-19 struck, we looked for ways by which we could continue the learning process even as we struggle to ensure the health, safety and welfare of all our learners,” she said.
“We have prepared our teachers, our school leaders, including the parents. But we have not given up on our health standards because these are our primary considerations,” she said.
For 2021, the agency has proposed a P1.1-trillion budget but the DBM only granted a total of P605 billion, including automatic appropriations.
“We are looking at the future of education. Therefore, this budget that we are requesting will set the groundwork for exploring technologies for remote learning,” she said.
“Online learning is part of the blended learning package we are implementing in basic education. We have put up the online platform Deped Commons with up to 9 million subscribers,” Briones added.
According to Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio, Deped will produce self-learning modules for 59 percent of the enrollees without Internet access in public schools.
The agency’s estimated funding requirement for self-learning module reproduction is P35 billion but was only given P15 billion under the National Expenditure Program and an additional P5 billion under the unprogrammed funds.
Meanwhile, Deped Undersecretary for Finance Annalyn Sevilla said the agency has allocated fund for the computerization program next year.
“What we have really is the allocation for the computerization program, provision of equipment. But for [Internet] allowances, we don’t have that yet,” said Sevilla, adding the agency still has yet to determine how much would be enough as a monthly Internet allowance for teachers.
Sevilla said the department is now looking at P350 to P500 monthly Internet allowance for teachers.
Meanwhile, Briones said the aspect of Internet connectivity is still one of the challenges to the online learning program of the agency.
With this, House Deputy Majority Leader and Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette Herrera is calling for a congressional inquiry into what she called “sad state” of Internet speed and connectivity in the country.
Herrera said that while the Philippines has one of the slowest Internet speeds in the world, it charges relatively high rates for the service that has become an essential commodity amid the worst public health crisis of this generation.
“As the Covid-19 pandemic struck, fast, efficient and stable Internet access is not only needed for communication and access to information, it also plays an important role in managing business operations, exploring novel sources of personal income, and continuity of education,” Herrera said as she filed House Resolution 1193.
In the resolution, Herrera wants the appropriate House committee to find out why the country’s Internet connection is relatively slow and expensive.
The party-list lawmaker cited the recent Speedtest Global Index for Mobile Internet, which showed the Philippines ranking 113th out of 117 countries with its average speed of 16.95 megabits per second (Mbps). The country also ranked 109th in the fixed broadband category with an average speed of 25.07 Mbps.
Hiring
MOREOVER, Deped Undersecretary Jesus Mateo said there are more than 65,000 plantilla positions available in the agency.
Currently, Mateo said there are 988,567 positions, 55,807 of which are unfilled. Next year, he added, the agency sought for budget to hire 10,000 personnel to maintain pupil-teacher ratio.
Also, he said the department is still awaiting the final guidelines on the provision of subsidies for students and displaced teachers under the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act of the Bayanihan 2.
“As of today, 865 private schools suspended operations for school year 2020-2021. Most of those which closed down are elementary schools,” he added.
Budget restoration
FOR her part, Assistant Minority Leader and ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro demanded for the restoration of the slashed budget for the Deped and higher budget for the implementation of health measures in schools.
The teacher lawmaker asked in her interpellation if Deped allotted funding for the implementation of health measures in schools to protect the teachers, non-teaching personnel and the students. It was revealed that the proposed 2021 budget for Deped included P4 billion for the implementation of health measures in schools but this amount does not cover testing and treatment of teachers and nonteaching personnel of the Deped.
Castro also said it was also revealed that there were zero budget allocations for the World Teachers’ Day incentive and the annual medical checkup for teachers amounting to P1000 per teacher and P500 per teacher, respectively.
“To be able to adequately prepare for a safe reopening of schools amid the pandemic, the Duterte administration should allocate more funds for education,” Castro said.
“We must restore the zeroed budget item under the Deped for Special Education Program, School Dental Health Care Program, World Teachers’ Day Incentive, and the Annual Medical Check-up for Teachers. We must also restore the slashed P5.36 million under the Basic Education Facilities that will create more classrooms, the slashed P5.06 million for the Basic Education Curriculum, the P19.59 million cut from the Early Language Literacy and Numeracy Program, the cut amounting to P500 million for the School-based Feeding Program and the P8.61 million cut from the Teacher Quality Development Program,” Castro said.
The Makabayan solon also raised the issue on the ratio of modules that would be used for the blended learning. It was revealed that sharing of modules by two to four learners would be a possible arrangement.
“Not having a 1:1 module-learner ratio is problematic especially with the possibility of a transmission of the virus through the delivery and swapping of these modules,” Castro stressed. “This is why we need to allocate mode funds for the printing and distribution of modules so that our learners will not have to resort to the sharing of modules in this time of a pandemic.”