Some schools face challenges during first class opening in Cebu

On Monday, the first class opening of some schools in Cebu has met with challenges and unfortunate occurrences. Modules are damaged by flood, teachers are struggling to adjust in virtual teaching and parents claiming learning materials for their unenrolled children.

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Paknaan Elementary School and High School in Mandaue City which has 800 students, needs to request for new sets of modules after a rainy weekend which caused heavy flood in the area. Unfortunately, some of the modules were carried away by the flood. Even if some students managed to find their learning materials it was already torn, destroyed and covered with mud.

Paknaan has always been experiencing flood even before the Covid-19 pandemic, the area has sitios that sit near the Mactan Channel and Butuanon River, which often swells during heavy rainstorm.

Among the public schools in the city, only the two Paknaan schools encountered problems, said Department of Education (DepEd) Mandaue City Division Supt. Nimfa Bongo.

The Paknaan students will possibly receive their learning modules on Wednesday, October 7.

Sadly, if the re-printing of self-learning modules will take time, Bongo said the DepEd Mandaue City will encourage students who own smartphones and have internet access to adopt the digitized modular distance learning. Teachers will be uploading a soft copy of the learning modules and have the student download the materials.

DepEd 7 Director Salustiano Jimenez were saddened by the problem encountered by students and teachers in Paknaan considering it happened on the first day of school year 2020-2021.

Most parts of Cebu have been experiencing heavy rainfall in the past days.

Meanwhile, Jimenez has not received reports similar to the situation in Paknaan and the start of distance learning went smoothly in several schools. However, if the rain continues in the coming days Jimenez admitted there will be a problem in distributing the new modules in Paknaan and in other parts of Cebu.

Some teachers are struggling in familiarizing themselves with the virtual class arrangement at Mandaue City Science High School (MCSHS) where 469 students were currently enrolled in the blended/distance learning.

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Meanwhile, Mabolo Elementary School faced problems such as parents trying to get learning modules for their children who were not yet enrolled.

DepEd allowed late enrollees until the first week of November. Late enrollees will still received their modules but they will have to wait as the early enrollees are prioritized.

Deped said 90 percent of the printed self-learning modules have already been distributed to public school teachers nationwide.