THE Department of Education Central Visayas (DepEd 7) had conducted surveys on all the principals in the region to know what modalities will suit their respective schools.
This was after its plan on implementing online classes due to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.
DepEd 7 Director Salustiano Jimenez said the surveys were meant to determine what modality the principal will choose to implement in his school when the school year 2020-2021 starts on Aug. 24, 2020.
The modalities the DepEd presented were blended teaching, online classes and face-to face teaching.
He added that included in the surveys are the equipment and facilities that the schools will need for the modality of their choice.
Jimenez said Cebu City, which is still considered a high risk area for the virus, will most likely do online classes.
But he added that in mountainous areas, teachers prefer face-to-face classes but with limited students and social distancing, as per the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) protocol, he said.
One of the options is to deliver modules, self-learning kits and worksheets to every student’s house if the principal or the school cannot do the online or face-to-face classes.
Jimenez said the school and its office will seek help from the local government unit (LGU) and the barangay officials to help them in the house-to-house distribution of materials.
Antonia Lim, representative of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Cebu Chapter, said their number one issue with online classes is that most of their students don’t have internet connection in their homes and some don’t have cellphones to use.
She added that they also have teachers who don’t have stable internet connection in their homes to accommodate online classes.
Lim told SunStar Cebu: “As a Mathematics teacher, I find it hard to conduct online classes. If students can hardly understand some of the topics when done face to face, how much more if these will be done online?”
Lim said the DepEd and the LGU should provide gadgets and equipment to the teachers and students especially in Cebu City if they want to push through with online classes.
The DepEd Central Office however, has not yet issued any order to do online classes in the upcoming school year. (JCT)