Cotabato City—Schools in the Bangsamoro region may yet shift to online or distance learning mode, even as education officials brace for the “new normal” amid the corona virus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
Education Minister Mohagher Iqbal of the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) has called for and hosted meetings with education officials on the conduct of survey for the region’s Learning Continuity Plan (LCP).
Haron Meling, Iqbal’s chief-of-staff, said BARMM’s Ministry of Basic, Higher and Technical Education (MBHTE) also formed part of the Department of Education’s on-going consultation on the country’s state of learning toward a new normal.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), for its part, started its nationwide LCP inputs survey on May 8.
Consultation-series continues to provide a DepEd designated committee to deliberate on the most convenient alternative schooling modes applicable to various parts of the country, and that “options include distance learning,” Meling said.
Meling said the DepEd’s management committee has already held five teleconference sessions since the consultation-series started in early March to come up with a workable LCP.
Meling said education officials want LCP that would ensure that learning remained accessible even for students living in remotest areas.
An official statement by DepEd said “LCP includes key features on K-12 curriculum adjustments; alignment of learning materials; various modalities of delivery; and corresponding teacher and parent/guardian training for home-schooling.”
Meling said that since some remote areas of the Bangsamoro region do not have good internet services to support online learning sessions, the committee wants to make class files downloadable or ready-to-print for the students.
Consultation-meetings were thus far held with BARMM Schools Division as prelude among other efforts by MBHTE in adjusting to the new state of Philippine Educational System, amid crises.
“The MBHTE-BARMM will be ‘leaning’ towards this coming August 24, as the start of the new school year and (which) will end in April 2021,” Meling said, giving emphasis to terms used by DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones.
“The newly hired teachers will report to their work on the First of June, physically or online,” he added.
