DepEd to discourage students with smartphones, gadgets from using printed modules
MANILA, Philippines — Possibly starting the second quarter of this school year, the Department of Education (DepEd) will discourage students with smartphones and electronic gadgets from using printed self-learning modules to cut demand.
In an online briefing on Monday, DepEd Undersecretary Diosdado Antonio said that for the first quarter of the school year, they tried to follow the learning preferences of the students which are printed self-learning modules.
This, however, might not be the case for the following quarters as the education department appealed for students with access to smartphones and gadgets to discard printed modules.
“Sa first quarter, sinubok natin na tugunan ‘yung mga preferences ng mga pamilya kaya popular ‘yung printed self-learning modules,” San Antonio said.
“Pero, ang pinu-push din natin na sa mga susunod na quarters, susubukin natin na kung ‘yung mga pamilya ay may mga gadgets, ay idi-discourage natin na kumuha ng printed self-learning modules,” he added.
San Antonio said that doing so would mean a “significant reduction” in the requirement for the printed modules since the demand will go down from around 13 million to just 6 million.
“Hopefully sa mag susunod na pasukan, yung may mga smartphone at gadgets ay ie-encourage na natin na yung digital format na para hindi masyadong marami ang pangangailangan sa mga papel so this would mean mga 6 million learners na lang, iva-validate natin Ito,” San Antonio said.
In an earlier House hearing, DepEd bared that some students would have to share their self-learning modules due to lack of funding for the production of the materials.
San Antonio said modules in some subjects would be used “on a rotation basis,” but they would have to be disinfected before being passed on to the next set of learners.
DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla explained that for the 1:1 module-to-student ratio to be followed about P35 billion would be needed.
However, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) only allotted P15 billion for the production of the modules under the 2021 national budget on top of P5 billion from the unprogrammed funds.
“We are readjusting our plan so that we can have a production of the self-learning materials with this amount which was given to us,” said Sevilla. [ac]
