Teachers innovate for the students

SOUTHERN LEYTE – Public school classes started last September 13, 2021, while many private schools started theirs in August. The academe has been immensely challenged on how to effectively infuse learnings to its students, more so now with the lingering pandemic.
In-person classes are still not permitted by the government, as such the schools here are adapting to blended learning. The conduct of remote learning activities is permitted but not required on weekends, according to the Department of Education.
DepEd Southern Leyte Schools Division Superintendent, Dr. Genis Murallos, said that the province is ready for the in-person pilot testing of classes in three schools – the Liloan National Vocational High School, Pintuyan National Vocational High School, and Sta. Cruz National High School in Malitbog
Teachers underwent training in crafting audio visual lessons, towards production, last September 6 to 10, 2021. Although they have been exposed to it since January of last year, Dr. Murallos said.
“Other schools do blended learning modality, depending on student’s capacity, technologically that is. Teachers have prepared AVLs, video lessons, and there are also radio-based instructions prepared by our teachers, says DepEd Information Officer Lyna Gayas”.
As of now, 80% of the public school students have no gadget or electronic tablet and that is why DepEd is still continuing with the modules. It has so far purchased 2,000 gadgets or tablets with lessons embedded for selected students in far-off places who are enrolled in Kindergarten up to Grade 3.
The DepEd here is also planning to spend its budget of P10M to purchase more gadgets and transistor radios with USB for the lessons. This radio-usb strategy has been done by an innovative teacher in Macrohon municipality and has found it effective, Superintendent Murallos said. According to him, some teachers revealed that they tried their best to teach school lessons by going to the students’ houses or open areas near their place.
The big challenge for DepEd is in the students’ learning assessment, according to Dr. Murallos. Some teachers may have to do the lessons themselves in order to comply. Besides, some parents may not be able to help their children because their mental capability is lower than their children, or the parents are busy working.
In a data provided by Planning Officer Lorlin Malbas, based on the Learner Information System of Enrollment Quick count as of September 17, 2021 enrolment, Southern Leyte has so far reached 87,422 or 99.18% compared to last year’s 88,149. These are coming from 380 schools composed of 297 public elementary schools, 45 public secondary schools, 37 private schools, and 1 state university.