DepEd 7 offices tasked to submit enhanced BELCP

WHILE waiting for the final approval from the President and other relevant agencies on the implementation of pilot limited face-to-face classes for basic education, the Department of Education (DepEd) 7 continues to prepare for limited face-to-face class resumption.

DepEd 7 Director Salustiano Jimenez said he has required the 19 DepEd division offices in the region to submit until July 16, 2021, their Enhanced Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan (BELCP) which will serve as basis for regional BELCP for the school year (SY) 2021-2022.

“I requested that all schools shall prepare a pilot limited face-to-face classes implementation plan. So that by the time the President gives his approval, we can immediately implement it because we already have the plan,” he added.

Sought for opinion, an incoming Grade 7 student, Ashley Garces, said she is not ready for the resumption of limited face-to-face classes now that she has to attend a different school.

“Though I’ve missed my classmates and friends in elementary since we had the distance learning last school year, I am not that excited for the face-to-face classes in high school as my new school is far from our house and that would mean more expenses for transportation,” she said.

Jimenez said the BELCP for the incoming school year is just a refinement or enhanced version of the BELCP used by DepEd for SY 2020-2021, or when distance learning was first applied in the country because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said part of the refinement process they are doing is the conduct of quality assurance check for the printed modules used by students in the previous school year.

“This time, since our school divisions already have the modules, what we will do is re-check the modules; if upon their quality check, there is nothing wrong, then they can proceed to reproduce more copies of these modules depending on the number of their students,” he said.

He, however, said the printing required for this school year will be less than the previous one as most of the divisions were able to keep the modules because learners utilized their worksheets and activity sheets for their answers in the previous school year.

Jimenez also said the region is set to receive a budget of more than P300 million from the DepEd central office for the implementation of the region’s Enhanced BELCP.

As for enrolment, he said Central Visayas has reached 500,000 in its early enrollment for Kindergarten, Grade One, Grade Seven and Grade 11.

The early registration happened in March.

He said various modalities for enrollment are still in use for this school year.

Aside from parents personally going to school for registration, he said other schools still implement online enrollment while some place the registration forms in various “puroks” for easier access for students and parents. (WBS)