The Department of Education (DepEd), more than two months before the scheduled opening of classes on August 24, said Tuesday it would provide training and orientation for parents and guardians who would supervise children's studies at home.
Education Undersecretary Tonisito Umali said parents would also need to prepare as they take on a "bigger role" now that most students would sift through their lessons from home.
"We expect partnership with, for example, the home schoolers' associations. We have set that already so there will be orientation activities for parents,” Umali told Teleradyo, beamed nationwide.
According to him, the DepEd, which has set a month-long enrolment for public schools this June, had modules that identify competencies that parents must have to be effective learning facilitators.
Physical classes—where students attend classroom lessons—have been discouraged to avoid exposing students, teachers and other school personnel and placing them at risk of contracting the new coronavirus disease.
Meanwhile, Senator Manuel Lapid has filed a resolution to investigate the status of internet connectivity in the country, aimed at ensuring the effectivity of the work from home arrangement and the distant learning program of the government.
The shift in the mode of work and education system including the day-to-day transactions like banking and online shopping amid the coronavirus disease pandemic will rely on stable and fast internet connectivity.
Lapid filed Senate Resolution 414 to conduct the inquiry, in aid of legislation, to determine the efficiency and the status of the country's internet connectivity, speed, bandwidth capacity and relevant parameters in light of the "new normal".
In the House of representatives, a party-list legislator who represents teachers is seeking a House investigation into the alleged exclusion of teachers and education-support personnel in private schools from the augmentation measures of the Department of Labor and Employment.
But Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said ACT-Teachers Rep. France Castro might have misinterpreted the reports that reached her.
"There were no exclusions. We gave financial assistance to all formal workers who could not report to office because of COVID-19. We based our assistance on the submissions of their employers," Bello told The Manila Standard.
Some private school teachers have received their social amelioration from the Labor department. The problem lies with schools that submitted incomplete or faulty documentation.
Castro, in filing House Resolution 933, said: "There is an overwhelming number of complaints from private school teachers on their were exclusion from the financial assistance of the government since the various forms of lockdowns were imposed."
She claimed many private school teachers were no longer receiving monthly compensation from their schools. "Many schools that applied for the amelioration measures of DOLE were also deemed unfit to receive financial assistance based on the qualifications of DOLE or were rejected due to exhaustion of funds."
Castro also said in her resolution that "teachers and non-teaching personnel in the private education sector are most hit by the community quarantines imposed in different parts of the country. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the prevalent contractualization schemes in private schools."
"Educators in the public and private sector from basic to tertiary education also need socio-economic aid brought by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of private school teachers and education support personnel in the private sector are still contractual employees and are 'no-work-no-pay' workers and should be included in the amelioration programs of government."
