Tents serve as temporary classrooms in Davao, Caraga region

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) is set to distribute 200 tents in areas in Davao Oriental and the Caraga region that were devastated by typhoon Pablo to serve as temporary mobile classrooms.

Aside from the tents, DepEd has already distributed 71,586 textbooks in the Pablo-hit areas as of last Friday, to replace those that were lost and swept away during the onslaught of the killer typhoon last December.

Before the resumption of classes last Jan. 3, DepEd had already distributed 56 tents during the Christmas break that served as mobile classrooms upon the school opening.

The 200 additional tents that will serve as temporary classrooms and debriefing areas have been procured and are expected to be fully delivered in affected areas by the first week of February.

DepEd Secretary Armin Luistro said that they were continuing efforts to mobilize their personnel in the affected regions to bring back normalcy classes in schools in the affected provinces.

“As much as possible, we do not allow interruption of classes so that while repair and rehabilitation works are in progress, we have tents to serve as temporary classrooms,” Luistro said.

DepEd has likewise conducted a refresher course for some 60 teachers who will provide students with Modified In-School and Off-School Approach (MISOSA) and electronic Instructional Management by Parents, Community and Teachers (e-IMPACT). These are alternative delivery modes being implemented by DepEd to reach out to learners who are out of the formal system because of various reasons such as calamities.

“We have this lined up on the 4th week of January so that we can make education accessible to our learners while rehabilitation works are on-going,” Luistro explained.