The Philippines Department of Education will use learning facilitators to help students from less privileged backgrounds to continue learning through distance learning once the schools reopen.
On August 10th, two weeks before the official school reopenings in the Philippines, the President Duterte administration will launch the remote learning. It will involve explaining to students, teachers and parents how the Department of Education intended to implement distance learning through online learning, radios, television and modular learning.
The Department of Education has expressed confidence that the school reopenings will run smoothly, having had dry runs simulating how distance learning will be carried out. Education Secretary Leonor Briones also said that the simulations had been done in all districts, and had given them a good perspective of how distance learning will look like.
Distance learning will involve students learning from home and being assisted by their parents or guidance.
Using learning facilitators
A major problem that was exposed was that, in some households, the students will not be able to get the help they need because they will have no one to guide them through distance learning. One of the major issues with distance learning was that some students came from backgrounds where their guardians had no formal education, therefore, the could not be able to offer help.
However, the government has devised a new method that will involve assigning learning facilitators to these students to help them continue with their learning. The learning facilitators will be working through cluster learning facilitation, which will involve sending teachers in regions that have learners without home tutors.
The learning facilitators will then visit students’ homes to help students continue with their education. This was according to a memo sent by the Department of Education dated July 21 sent to its Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM).
To ensure the safety of the learning facilitators against the coronavirus, the government has advised against sending facilitators that are over 60 years, have immunodeficiency, have underlying conditions, pregnant or teachers who live in high-risk areas.
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