TO AID in the delivery of continuous learning of students in the highlands amid the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic, volunteer teachers in Benguet are tapped by the Department of Education (DepEd).

Benilda Daytaca, DepEd-Benguet Schools Division superintendent, said in a recent press conference that sitios or areas in Benguet province without permanent teachers that need assistance in educating children at home will be addressed through volunteer teachers.

Daytaca said volunteer teachers for Benguet include teacher applicants, retired teachers, Philippine National Police (PNP) who graduated as teachers and para-teachers or those with college degree, college undergraduate, senior high school or high school graduates, volunteer PNP and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) personnel.

"The area where to volunteer is just within walking distance limited to own sitio/purok/neighborhood movement. Our PNP and DSWD volunteers may come from the municipalities and as scheduled in areas where they may render volunteer service," Daytaca added.

The agency sought free services from barangay volunteers, social workers, retired teachers, PNP volunteers, other employed individuals, relatives who may be able to assist in teaching.

DepEd-Benguet earlier talked with Benguet Provincial Police Office (PPO) personnel to determine the areas needing volunteer and specify areas where the PNP can also help deliver and retrieve learning packages.

"We mapped teacher locations first and learner locations. After identifying teachers and the learners who may possibly reach out to them -- multi-grade -- then the areas needing volunteer teachers or para-teachers shall be identified," Daytaca said.

Considering the geographical situation of the province, learners are located randomly and far from the school. Daytaca said volunteer may visit a learner once a week.

She said they will also coordinate with the local government units regarding the provision of an honorarium for the teachers.

Meanwhile, once the teachers are mapped out, parents and students can consult with the nearest teacher.

The role of teacher expands to multi-level teaching as not all learners of the same grade level are located in one sitio.

For the continuity of education in the highlands, blended learning approach is being pushed by the agency. It combines face-to-face and distance learning: modular materials to be brought to the learners, interaction online, TV and radio-based instruction.

Rizalyn Guznian, chief education supervisor of the Curriculum Implementation Division, said DepEd-Benguet will develop learning modules and to date, there are 1,500 printable modules ready and available.

The agency also partnered with a local media studio for the video modular materials.

As of July 22, there are 226 video-based teaching learning materials finished, and the agency targets more than 200 video-based teaching materials to be created every week.

Daytaca said they are targeting to produce 2,080 video-based teaching learning material for the first quarter. The materials will also include the digitize story books for kindergarten learners.

The completion of all video-based materials is targeted to be finished by September.

As of July 23, there are 74,383 learners from elementary, junior and senior high school who are enrolled in the province, lower than their target of 82,284.

To ensure the learners are enrolled based on the target number, information education campaign is conducted utilizing social media, other means of communication, speakers and megaphone to urged parents to enroll their children for the upcoming school year.

As not all learners who want to enroll in Benguet province can apply for online enrollment, teachers conducted house to house enrollment while others enrolled thru online, text and drop box enrollment system.

Lucio Alawas, school governance and operations division chief, said there are still 7,000 learners not enrolled citing parents reason of not enrolling include fear of the Covid-19 pandemic, expenses, the need for a laptop and internet connection for the education of their children.

DepEd-Benguet, however, reiterated they are not encouraging online education.

"We are not encouraging online, we are not telling our parents to buy laptop, gadget, because what we did is to find out what is already there at home, video based, audio-based learning material. We found out there are more [people using] radio and television compared to laptop, tablets or phones," Daytaca added.