Only 40% of public school teachers so far trained for distance learning

Only about 40 percent of the country’s public school teachers have so far been trained to conduct distance learning, according to the Department of Education (DepEd), whose readiness for the unprecedented challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic was assessed in a Senate hearing on Thursday.

Education Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio said more than 300,000 teachers—out of the total of some 800,000—had received training through the Educational Technology Unit of the DepEd’s Information and Communications Technology Services (ICTS).

The training program included topics like converting printed text to digital materials, creating interactive quizzes, and using software like Fusion 360, Autodesk and Photoshop to develop 3D graphics.

“We hope to be able to provide training … this coming July [for] the remaining 60 percent,” San Antonio said in an inquiry called by the Senate basic education committee. “In addition to the training being done by ICTS, there are also local initiatives from regional offices.”

Senators’ doubts

Director Leila Areola of the DepEd’s Bureau of Learning Delivery said the National Educators Academy of the Philippines was set to conduct “massive training for our teachers for all our modalities” next month, but some senators expressed doubts whether such an approach would be feasible.

Sen. Nancy Binay asked whether the DepEd had identified which areas across the country were adequately equipped for online teaching, saying such information should guide the conduct of the training program.

San Antonio said the exact mapping of these areas was still a “work in progress.”

“But shouldn’t we have this kind of mapping as early as now?” Binay asked. “Teachers’ training should be appropriate to the capabilities of the area.

Let’s say [in] Bukidnon or Cordillera, where [telecommunications] signal is difficult, why would we train our teachers for an online way of teaching? It seems like our limited resources are not being targeted.” Learning options

The department has given no indications that it plans to push back the scheduled Aug. 24 opening of the school year, where teaching will be delivered under various distance learning options that include online classes, printed modules and radio- and television-based instruction.

The DepEd has given its local offices and schools some flexibility in choosing the teaching method most suitable to a particular area, but the data needed to guide such choices would not be available until the completion of a nationwide enrollment survey at the end of the month.

In Thursday’s Senate hearing, Education Undersecretary Tonisito Umali also said the department had yet to start printing the modules for lessons to be taught at home. Printing and then delivering such materials to their intended users would take up to 60 days, he said.

“DepEd is just getting ready. We are just now catching up,” said Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, who presided over the meeting as committee chair. “Our preparations should be done on a regular basis. Mapping should be on a regular basis.”

Gatchalian is the author of Senate Bill No. 1565, or Education in the New Normal Act, which aims to “institutionalize” DepEd’s ongoing preparations and adjustments to make them part of the education sector’s standby options when coping with national calamities or emergencies in the future.