MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) is eyeing to air 130 lecture episodes on television to aid students as a part of its measures under the new learning system amid the coronavirus pandemic.
During the hearing of the Senate committee on basic education, arts, and culture, DepEd Director Abram Abanil said that each lecture episode will last around 20 minutes with five-minute breaks in between.
The episodes will run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., he added.
“By October 5, the target is to be able to produce 130 episodes per week. These 130 episodes cover only the major subject areas under the most essential learning competencies,” Abanil said.
“There are supposed to be 220 subject areas but as of the moment, Hindi pa namin kaya yung 220 so we are targeting only for the major subject areas this coming October 5, so 130 episodes per week,” he added.
While currently, the target is only at 130 episodes, Abanil said they are planning to ramp this up to 220 episodes per week by January and include dubbing of K-3 subject areas into the local language.
“There are 19 languages under the mother tongue. We still have to plot out among our resources which will be able to cover the 19 languages but already incorporated in the 130 episodes will be Filipino sign language,” Abanil said.
“We have a dedicated studio just for putting in Filipino sign language into all our video episodes,” he added.
DepEd’s partner channels include IBC 13, PTV4, Solar TV, Planet Cable, the Philippine Cable and Telecommunications Association, and Cignal TV, among others.
As of September this year, Abanil said DepEd has five studios, 18 public schools for off-site shootings, 107 teacher broadcasters, and 72 production staff.
Abanil added that DepEd is also planning to air 24 episodes from September 21 to 25 to allow them to “practice” the logistics behind getting the episodes ingested into TV stations.
Further, the DepEd official said that they are also building up several production sites in various regions in the country such as Ilocos Norte, Pangasinan, Quezon, Batangas City, Palawan, Zamboanga City, and Davao City, among others, to aid in the production of the episodes.