Adjustments for the new school year

Noimielyn C. Sagun

THE Department of Education had to make a lot of adjustments for the new school year, because of the health crisis brought about by COVID-19.

Now that the Department will be implementing the blended learning approach, it had to remove around 60% of the curriculum to make way for adjustments for the coming school year, which is scheduled to start on August 24.

In view of this, the department has been preparing for ways to deliver education to students through self-learning modules, broadcast media, and the internet, whichever is available to the area where the learners reside.

Unfortunately, there was a low turnout of enrollment because of the pandemic, but the DepEd will very much willing to accept late enrollees until the last week of September.

This is in accordance with Department Order (DO) s. 2018, which states that schools may accept late enrollees provided that the learner will be able to meet 80 percent of the prescribed number of school days for each school year.

Late enrollees should also accomplish the quarterly requirement to pass the grade level.

To date, there are 21.7 million students registered out of the 27.7 million expected students, as per the enrolment period which ended on July 15. According to DepEd, some 1.5 million late enrollees have registered so far.

The threat of COVID-19 has forced DepEd to implement distance learning, where students do not have to go to school to participate in classes, but just recently, the President approved limited face-to-face learning in low-risk areas starting January 21.

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