MORE than 1.7 million public school students from 3,744 schools in Central Visayas were affected due to Typhoon Odette.

This was what Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones reported when she visited Dauin town in Negros Oriental on Friday, December 17, 2021, to check on the damage made by the typhoon.

Based on DepEd’s partial report on December 17, 15.9 million learners from 35,698 schools in the Visayas and Mindanao have been affected by Typhoon Odette nationwide since its landfall this week.

All school divisions from DepEd’s Central Visayas cluster were also directly affected by the natural disaster, which include 3,744 schools and 1,756,316 learners from the region.

“We started coordinating with the schools division offices and schools affected by the typhoon, so that we could provide the initial assistance to them,” Briones said.

Following what happened, the DepEd’s Central Office in Manila issued a memorandum reminding its field offices on the reiteration of the disaster preparedness for response measures to be undertaken by exposed schools.

Meanwhile, the DepEd’s Disaster Risk Reduction Management Service is monitoring the situation and will provide support for response interventions of the affected areas if necessary. (PR)