Copies of learning modules not yet delivered to teachers

In July, Department of Education (DepEd) said it had started printing Self-Learning Modules (SLM) for students who won't be able to participate in online classes or those students and parents who had chosen modular as their learning modality.

Photo credit: news.abs-cbn.com

Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said that DepEd shared the Self-Learning Modules to its regional and division offices to decentralize reproduction and speed up printing. Division and district offices are in charge of printing.

However, reports from the different division offices and schools that until now teachers still don't have a copy of the learning modules because they are having a hard time reproducing modules due to printing cost.

In an interview with a teacher who has been teaching MAPEH (Music, Arts, Physical Education, and Health) for 32 years in a public school in Navotas, said that untill now they don't have a copy and haven't studied yet the content of the modules to be delivered. She also worries on how to start the school year since she hasn’t seen the copies of the self-learning modules (SLMs) yet. Since they were told to prepare activity sheets that would come with SLMs, she said they just based them on last year’s lessons for the time being and they could not tell when they would receive the SLMs. 

Another interview with a teacher who has been teaching Filipino in a public school in Pasig said that some say they are 80% done with the printing, but others are nowhere near done.

According to Raymond Basilio, secretary general of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), they also received reports from teachers who are having issues with the modular learning preparations.

With no SLMs on hand, Basilio said that teachers "have no choice but to make do with what they have or else students will have no materials to use" when classes formally start on August 24.

Basillio also received reports from division offices and schools having a hard time reproducing SLMs due to printing cost.

Reproduction cost is also a big problem as schools were forced to find ways to raise funds in so short a time, depleting the meager school MOOE (Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses), soliciting for private donations, and maximizing teachers' personal printers just to jumpstart the reproduction, 

Basilio said.

Many reported that LGUs helped save them from these problems, but LGU commitments in some areas were not yet delivered. 

Basilio added, 

Some divisions have shared that they received a few hundred thousand pesos from the central office for module printing but this would not even cover a tenth of the millions of pesos needed to reproduce the modules for the first grading period.