by Andrew Mar C. Salburo
DepEd Olongapo City wins over the COVID 19 pandemic after Monday’s smooth opening of classes for school year 2020-2021.
Starting with a simultaneous flag-raising ceremony in all the four districts at 7:30 am, Schools Division Superintendent Leilani Cunanan welcomed the more than 47,933 students from public schools returning to their studies sans face-to-face classes.
“We did it! In spite of the many challenges and apprehensions, SY 2020-2021 has finally started…nothing can stop us and dampen our spirit and determination in delivering the education that our learners deserve through various distance learning modalities,” she enthusiastically said.
Superintendent Cunanan also said that the schools are ready with the modules as with the other learning materials for the different learning modalities. She stated that schools have started distributing modules to learners through the parents or guardians two weeks before the opening of classes.
“Of the total number of learners, 39,386 chose the modular approach, while 5,199 chose online. The rest chose TV or radio blended with modular. To date, we have already printed and delivered 334,994 modules to schools, so that we are assured that our learners have something to read, study and work on,” she explained.
Citing the need to be resilient, she likewise encouraged the parents, learners, and teachers to focus on the positive aspects of the present situation.
“Education in the “new normal” is indeed full of challenges, but if we take these challenges as opportunities to innovate and to strengthen our collaboration with our stakeholders, then there’s no reason why teaching and learning should not continue. Access to technology is one challenge, i.e. slow or intermittent internet or Wi-Fi connectivity and inadequate budget for the printing and delivery of modules. But just like what Sec. Briones said we shouldn’t stop because education must continue. We know that there is much more work to be done,” she explained.
She highlighted the concerted efforts of everyone in the Schools Division, together with its various stakeholders as it braves the “new normal” in education.
“We are indeed very grateful for all the support and assistance coming from all our stakeholders’ group, such as our Local Government Units (LGUs), the NGOs, private sector and civic-minded and generous individuals. This ‘new normal’ is something new to all of us. It is an unprecedented moment in the history of education and the world as a whole, but we have to keep moving forward. With the help of the Almighty, I know we’ll all make it through,” she stated with optimism.
The Schools Division Office will continue to monitor the developments in the coming days and get feedbacks from schools in order to continuously improve its provision of distance learning in the “new normal”.
