THE Department of Education (DepEd) 7 will conduct its regional virtual kick-off or final dry run for the opening of classes on Friday, Oct. 2, 2020.

Classes in public schools will open on Monday, Oct. 5.

Salustiano Jimenez, DepEd 7 director, said the activity is intended to showcase the “united readiness efforts” of the region’s 19 schools divisions.

He said they will discuss health guidelines for teachers and volunteers as well as the challenges they faced during their own division-wide dry runs of the learning modalities they chose for this school year.

Jimenez said some schools divisions started holding dry runs last July.

Each schools division applied different mechanisms in the distribution and retrieval of printed modules for modular learning-printed method.

For instance, if the module reproduction is conducted division-wide, modules will be delivered from the division to the school districts and from the school districts to the schools.

In areas where students live near the campus, parents can go to the school to get and submit the accomplished modules of their children.

Volunteers, facilitators, home tutors and parent-brigades help in the distribution of the modules, Jimenez said.

Some schools or divisions have opted to distribute and retrieve modules on Friday. Those with a large student population have chosen to do it every two weeks.

Jimenez said they’ve distributed almost half of the printed modules.

The last day to distribute modules will be on Oct. 2. However, parents and students are advised not to open these until Oct. 5.

Jimenez said guidelines to protect those involved in the distribution and retrieval of modules from the coronavirus disease 2019 are in place. These include social distancing and limiting the number of parents who come to school to get and submit modules, among others.

Meanwhile, Jimenez announced that DepEd 7 has an isolation facility in Cebu City for employees who are suspected of having Covid-19. He said they only set one up in Cebu City since it has the most number of cases in the region.

DepEd 7 personnel elsewhere can use isolation and quarantine facilities in their areas, he said.

Jimenez said they also coordinated with the Department of Health so the skeletal workforce of the DepEd 7 office can get a free swab test within this week. (WBS)