DepEd's prep for face-to-face classes dry run still continues, awaiting go-signal for implemenation

On Monday, the Department of Education (DepEd) said that it will carry on the preparation for the implementation of limited face-to-face classes while waiting for the approval from relevant government officials. 

President Rodrigo Duterte took back his approval for a dry run of face-to-face classes in 2021, as other countries report cases of the new coronavirus variant. 

Despite the calling off of the dry run, Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said that the department is still continuously preparing for face-to-face instruction in case they are given the go-signal. 

Hindi naman natin sinabi na hindi na ‘yan. So iyong mga paghahanda ay nand'yan pa rin. Siyempre hindi lang natin ma-implement hangga’t hindi pa nagkakaroon ng go-signal,

he said. 

The department is still identifying which schools would be allowed to hold limited face-to-face classes. Also, DepEd is still polishing up the minimum health standards that would be implemented to prevent students, school personnel and parents from getting COVID-19. 

San Antonio considered the first grading period from Oct. 5 to Dec. 12 “successful” since, according to him, there were very little “glitches” in the implementation of distance learning. 

Tingin ko nairaos ang ating first quarter na wala namang maraming glitches. So, pwede rin sabihin natin na matagumpay na naisagawa ang distance learning delivery modality sa first quarter,

he said. 

On the second quarter, he added that DepEd's Central Office's learning modules had undergone quality assurance as opposed to the modules in the first quarter, where they weren't able to review several of them especially those produced by the regional and division offices.