Punchline
DepEd’s inconsistent policy
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Last week, there was a news item about DepEd’s new initiative in the provinces of Laguna, Batangas and Cavite.
The project was about the introduction of a new teaching module aimed at modifying the content for teaching the subject Hekasi, specifically to aid the teachers in integrating the social causes and effects of migration, value formation, and financial literacy in classroom discussions.
For this purpose, DepEd will distribute “Ang Migrasyong Pilipino: Mga Kaugnay na Kahalagahan at Kagalingang Dapat Malinang sa Kabataan” a composite textbook-lesson plan, to public school teachers from Grade 5 to high school levels. The book was adopted from a training manual on capacity-building for children of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) prepared by Atikha, a non-government organization. Essentially, the manual was transformed into a lesson plan and written in a language toned down to suit school children, the news item said.
So, what’s the relevance to us, you ask. The relevance is in the inconsistency in the DepEd’s policy in introducing novel and new studied approaches to teaching.
In the case of the new teaching module for the southern Luzon provinces, DepEd clearly saw nothing wrong with commending and distributing a manual prepared and tested by a non-government organization to be used by public school teachers in the area. In stark contrast, DepEd chose to sanction two of its own division superintendents in Pangasinan who dared to develop a manual to help teachers improve their teaching methods in the province. It didn’t matter that the provincial government endorsed the manual and adopted it as a priority project to improve the educational standards in the province.
Would it have made a difference for DepEd if the Espino administration simply said it commissioned the work to an NGO and said nothing about the authorship and involvement of Schools Superintendents Alma Ruby Torio and Armando Aquino in the project?
O galit lang si Sec. Lapus sa Pangasinan?
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PERSONA NON GRATA? Meanwhile, I still wonder what the brave souls in the provincial board have done for the two school officials. Simply declaring DepEd Sec. Jesli Lapus persona non grata does not set the tone for motivating other teachers and school officials in the province to do more and beyond their duties as both Torio and Aquino had done.
What have honorable members done to reward the two officials who were summarily demoted and who bore the brunt of the provincial government’s faux pas that led to their dilemma? Nothing, yet the product of their work was supposed to be the province’s innovative approach to education. Having received no worthy succor, they perhaps now rue the day they volunteered to do something for the province.
Do I hear a motion to declare the members of the provincial government persona non grata for being insensitive to the plight of the two deserving school superintendents?
It’s time the “patriotic” noisy board members start walking the talk for the deserving!
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SALAMAT DR. LU. At about the time the PUNCH reached the printing press last Saturday morning, happy with the thought that the staff again finished the issue on time, I was suddenly stunned on receiving a text message that Dr. Lu Fernandez had just died.
The first thought that came to mind was – another icon in the province’s medical field has left us. Then, I wondered how his patients would now fare without him. It was his kind caring ways, his jovial mood, his authoritative sense after a diagnose that quickly put many anxious patients’ mind at ease.
He belonged to an iconic generation that set the standards for a professional in our communities. I and my late mother were among those whom he had graciously admitted in his care. Dr. Lu is one who will surely be missed by hundreds of families.
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