THE Department of Education Central Visayas (DepEd 7) has called on the parents to be more patient in guiding their children’s learning progress and, as much as possible, refrain from inflicting corporal punishment upon their children as they let them work on their learning modules.
Salustiano Jimenez, DepEd 7 director, emphasized this after hearing of instances wherein parents, reportedly would inflict physical punishment on their student children who refuse to work on their activity sheets.
“I would still like to emphasize that not because they are parents they are already free to do corporal punishment on their children, just as teachers were not allowed to do it during the regular times,” Jimenez said.
He said it is important that parents must not be overwhelmed by their emotions and stress, but rather understand that each learner has his own learning pace and absorption capacity per lesson.
He emphasized that should a learner fail to finish the modules within a specific allotted time, the school also needs to give them a time allowance.
“It is still the transition period and everybody is facing these challenges,” he said.
Moreover, Jimenez said, generally, he considers the first week of opening of DepEd classes as successful.
Successful, he said, as despite the various complaints and memes (attacking the alleged erroneous items in the modules) that are posted on social media, there has been no formal complaint lodged in their command centers, schools nor in their regional and division offices.
He also highlighted that should parents spot errors in the modules or if they need assistance in explaining a particular lesson to their children, they can always approach their children’s teachers or their community volunteers and parent brigades.
For instance, he said, in areas in the provinces where elementary students can actually go out of their houses, and a parent brigade can hold a learning session while still observing social distancing.
He said if there is something that has to be improved or changed in education, it is always better to direct the concern to the party concerned for faster solutions.
He also called on the parents to be fair and to promote honesty in letting their children answer their own activity sheets instead of doing these for them.
Marifiel Baldo, 40, a resident of Barangay Mabolo, Cebu City, admitted that the role of the parents in this new educational
set up is challenging. Two of her five children are studying in public elementary and high schools.
She said as much as possible, though she sees to it that her children finish their module activities on time, she refrains from hardly pushing her child’s limit to also avoid causing too much stress on her child.
She also advised her fellow parents that one thing to do to not be too stressed with their children’s education is to let their children do their work.
As she also has an online business to tend to in the afternoon, she said she also asks her older children to look after their younger siblings in their classes.
She said she understands that at this time, cooperation among parents, the teachers, and the school is very crucial for the educational success of the learners. (WBS)