Pres. Duterte wishes success over DepEd's 'Handang Isip, Handang bukas Program'

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte extends his best regard for the Department of Education's (DepEd) success on its "Handang Isip, Handang Bukas" program.

Photo credit: abc.net.au

DepEd launched the program on Monday, August 24 to better understand the distance learning that will be implemented for this school year due to COVID-19.

According to the president, due to coronavirus crisis, it is necessary to have alternative teaching methods to ensure that students and teachers can avoid such diseases.

Our current situations with COVID-19 pandemic requires us to adapt innovative and effective measures to maintain the progress of students while ensuring their outmost health and safety,

 said President Duterte.

Last July, Duterte has approved the proposal of the DepEd to hold limited face-to-face classes in areas deemed to have low-risk COVID-19 transmission. However, face-to-face learning can only be carried out starting January 2021.

Duterte said in his fifth State of the Nation Address,

I cannot and I will not put at risk the lives of our students and teachers,

Duterte urged everyone to work together to ensure the safety and for students to be able to learn well. He said,

I join you in your collaborative efforts in demonstrating the capacity and preparedness of DepEd to operationalize learning delivery modalities in various goal settings,

Let us work together to successfully get the students back to track as we promote their well being amidst the global health crisis,

As of 8:00 AM, August 24, the total number of enrollees for SY 2020-2021 has reached 23,643,113 nationwide (85.07% of SY 2019-2020) for Kindergarten to Grade 12, including ALS and non-graded learners with disabilities.

The data showed that 21,813,184 learners have enrolled in public schools (96.63% of SY 2019) and 1,785,323 registered in private schools (41.47% of SY 2019).

DepEd is still anticipating increase in enrollment figures as reports from the field continue to come in. Schools will also accept late enrollees even beyond the enrollment period, as stated in DepEd Order No. 003, s. 2018.