NEGROS ORIENTAL – Some 400,000 public and private school students and teachers all over Negros Oriental will soon experience the “new normal” by holding online classes possibly at home thru the internet and printed modules, if not through radio or TV.
This is in consonance with President Duterte’s “No Vaccine , No school face to face,” policy if only to shield the young form being COVID-contaminated.
The Department of Education (DepEd) Division of Negros Oriental has already discounted the possibility of having face-to-face classes amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr. Senen Paulin, DepEd Negros Oriental Division Superintendent said “face-to-face classes remains as an option. “Face-to- face (classes) is our last recourse in the context of the COVID pandemic,” Paulin said. “If we have to resort to that, we will do it with the proper protective and preventive measures.”
DepEd has initially planned classroom classes with a 50% reduced capacity to comply with the mandatory physical distancing of students.
“We can schedule the students when to report to class and give them worksheets and assignments,” Paulin said.
He, however, clarified they are preparing various learning approaches, fitting for 17 districts under the division of Negros Oriental. Final learning methods will depend on a specific locality, their teachers and students, he added.
They are heavily dependent on the result on the data from the ongoing online enrollment that kicked off June 1, 2020. However, as of writing, Paulin said only around 3,000 students in the entire division enrolled online or 1.62% of their estimated 185,000 students.
Paulin said the division will continue preparing for the start of classes on August 24, 2020 even if there would be a decrease of enrollees for the upcoming school year. “We are preparing for more enrollees. We are hoping for more,” Paulin said.
The division has started orientations of parents, encouraging them to enroll their children despite the pandemic.
Paulin said online enrollment is not quite effective in the division compared to those in urban areas as suggested by the low turnout of enrollees. However, the data may still change since they still have the rest of June, July, and August for the continuing of enrollment.
They have tapped the barangays in the enrollment of students where they left enrollment forms for the parents to accomplish.
Other schools also gave out cellphone numbers where parents can enroll through texting for those with analog phones.
Paulin said they are also awaiting the go signal from their head office for a possible “face-to-face” enrollment where parents can use school computers to enroll their children online.
BY RYAN SOROTE
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