Promising to do better, DepEd says errors part of adjustment to distance learning
MANILA, Philippines — Distance learning for millions of students in the country began this week, with all eyes on the education department over the quality of its lessons aired on DepEd TV.
Officials, however, are appealing for understanding, and they admit that minimal errors are to be expected even in the next episodes they air as the agency adjusts from face-to-face learning due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Undersecretary for Administration Alain Pascua told reporters on Thursday that its teacher-broadcasters along with DepEd TV's production teams are producing 27 videos a day, or about 130 to 220 a week.
"This is not the last time there will be errors I assure you, because we are not perfect," he said. "We have been here for just four or five months [and] we are not really journalists or broadcasters in this line of work."
DepEd had tapped some of the country's top broadcasters to train its teachers on how best to deliver on television, with TV and radio as among its platforms for blended learning, apart from printed modules.
"If the people, the media and the public are looking for perfect episodes, give us so much time," Pascua added in mixed English and Filipino. "We cannot do these things at this time because it is fast-paced and these videos are on a daily basis."
Quality checks
The senior education official said the agency has over 40 steps to ensure the accuracy of the episodes they produce.
These include reviewing modules by subject experts, script writing and complementing it with visuals and audio materials, of which are checked by an executive producer.
Such eventually undergo revisions from teacher-broadcasters and DepEd's EdTech, a quality assurance check for structure, texts, and sound bytes from teachers, and a final review before exporting for airing on TV.
A snippet of a Math solution aired on IBC-13 was posted by a social media user on Wednesday, October 7, showing that getting the value of x in the equation "2x=0" could be solved by dividing both sides to zero.
Pascua has apologized for the incident and said there were lessons learned: "Now the country knows, whether the young or old, that zero cannot be a divisor."
The agency has also sought the help of volunteer-experts from different sectors for the matter.
"While this would not be a regular thing, there will still be some mistakes," Pascua said. "We're not living in a perfect world, but we're doing everything to fix our TV episodes."
Pascua said there is still a need to "aggressively" promote DepEd TV as they admit that some households are still not aware of this. Director Abram Abanil also reported that the agency's online platform for learning, known as the DepEd Commons, now caters to about nine million users, where lessons for the week including videos are uploaded.
The education department has pushed through with the reopening of schools months since the coronavirus pandemic hit the country. This was despite calls from groups to postpone the school year otherwise known as the academic freeze.
Officials had since turned down this plea, with Education Secretary Leonor Briones saying the country had triumped over the COVID-19 when it resumed classes.
Latest figures from the department showed that there are now 24.8 million students enrolled, most coming from public schools that have seen a significant number in transferees from private institutions.
DepEd officials have yet to respond when sought for comment if they have existing programs for children whose parents opted not to enroll them for the new school year.
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