Learners more eager to learn amid Covid pandemic

CEBU CITY – The Department of Education (DepEd) said the cooperation among local governments and parents and teachers helped increase the enthusiasm of schoolchildren to continue learning despite the many challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

DepEd-7 Regional Director Salustiano Jimenez said the impact of the health crisis on all sectors has made the local governments more prepared in helping learners cope with the new normal in education. He said schoolchildren have become more eager to continue their education by keeping themselves abreast with the available technologies.

In fact, he said DepEd-7 recorded a total of 1,988,000 enrollees for the school year 2021-2022, and they expect it to increase in the coming days as public schools are still accepting new enrollees and transferees from some private schools that closed due to the pandemic. There were 2.01 million enrollees for basic education in Central Visayas during the school year 2020-2021.

The teachers, Jimenez also said, have now been equipped with the gadgets that they need such as printers, with assistance from the local governments. “Aside from the funds downloaded to our 19 school divisions, local governments helped schools in their place to acquire new printers. Last year, they had a hard time to realign budget, but now they have allocated specifically for education,” he said.

Jimenez said teachers in the region’s 19 school divisions have already completed the printing of modules for the first and second quarters of the school year, while the DepEd central office has begun delivering the centralized modules for the third quarter.

In Mandaue City, most of the learners will undergo the digital learning modality as the city government gave out tablets to the students and teachers. “What they can do in Mandaue is to save the module over the flash drive. So the notes, the tests, the activity and worksheets have to be saved in the flash drive,” Jimenez said. (John Rey Saavedra)