(Last of 2 parts)

FOR this year, the agency unveiled the two Silver Play Button awarded by video streaming company YouTube after DepEd TV and DepEd EdTech or education technology unit channels surpassed the 100,000-subscribers’ mark.

Both channels have been vital to the department’s implementation of distance learning, especially in online and television-based instruction.

It features video materials intended for learners, teachers and other stakeholders.

“To the entire staff and personnel of ICTS and EdTech, it is through your efforts that we reached more than 200,000 subscribers of the DepEd TV YouTube channel and the DepEd EdTech YouTube channel,” Undersecretary for Administration Alain Del Pascua said.

The DepEd TV channel already has 241,000 subscribers while the DepEd EdTech Unit channel garnered 230,000 subscribers.

The channel has also been uploading video materials related to ETULAY, the virtual tutorial aligned to the Most Essential Learning Competencies.

Meanwhile, the DepEd EdTech YouTube channel already has 3,242 video materials, including Virtual Inservice Training, Empowerment Training workshop for teaching and non-teaching personnel on the use of emerging technology and ICT, and ETULAY tutorial session.

“Actually, kami po ay nagpapasalamat sa ating mga teachers, learners and parents na sumuporta po sa ating programa. At dahil po sa inyo ay natanggap po ng DepEd TV at EdTech Unit ang Silver Play Button na ito,” ICTS-EdTech Unit Head Mark Sy said.

Pascua encouraged DepEd’s stakeholders, especially the teachers and personnel, learners, and parents to visit the channels and start subscribing to achieve the next YouTube milestone, the Gold Play Button.

“Kaya sinasabi po natin sa lahat ng teachers, sa lahat ng principals, sa lahat ng mga estudyante at saka sa mga magulang, punta lang po kayo sa YouTube channel ng DepEd TV at i-click ninyo roon para maging subscriber na kayo,” he said.

First Batch of ALS SHS graduates

For DepEd, the graduation of the first batch of Senior High School students under the Alternative Learning System Program this year is a milestone.

“We celebrate not just any graduation but the graduation of the first batch of Alternative Learning System Senior High School under the new ALS K to 12 Basic Education Curriculum,” Briones said.

“For many out-of-school youth and adults, ALS Senior High School is the completion of non-formal education. For DepEd, it is the fulfillment of its major priority,” she added.

Briones underscored the exceptional circumstances that the ALS SHS graduates had to face before and during the pandemic, and their perseverance to “finally get to where they are now.”

With the theme “Sa ALS 2.0, Kalidad ng Edukasyon lalong Patatagin sa Gitna ng Pandemya,” DepEd Region V successfully completed its pilot implementation of the ALS SHS which started in 2019.

Amid the many disruptions and unique challenges posed by the pandemic, Briones also commended DepEd Region V for “stepping up to the challenge” of piloting ALS.

According to Assistant Secretary for ALS G.H. Ambat, there were 62 ALS SHS graduates from the pilot schools Ligao City National High School in the Division of Ligao City, Nursery High School in the Division of Masbate City, Federico A. Estipona Memorial High School in the Division of Masbate Province, and Tabaco National High School in the Division of Tabaco City.

2.5M IP learners reached

In the first decade of the Indigenous Peoples Education Program, DepEd reached and served 2.529 million IP learners in 42,176 public schools nationwide.

The agency, through DepEd Order 62 series of 2011 or the National Indigenous Peoples Education Policy Framework, officially commenced the institutionalization of the IP Education Program in 2011.

Formulated after several consultation sessions with IP leaders and elders, the policy adopts a rights-based approach and directs the implementation of an education that is anchored on the social and cultural context of IP learners.

“IPEd program is DepEd’s response to the right of indigenous communities and indigenous learners to an education that is responsive to their context,” Senior Technical Assistant and IPsEO Head Maria Lourie Victor explained.

“It respects their identities, and it values and promotes their knowledge systems, and their competencies, and the values that are important to them, and of course, the other parts of their heritage,” she said.

“This was a product of the dialogue of DepEd and IP communities trying to find common ground so that the advocacy, for what is now called Indigenous Peoples Education, could move forward,” she added.

DepEd said that some of the continuing initiatives for IP learners are the contextualization of lesson plans, use of the local language for teaching, and having elders as teachers and mentors.

Other initiatives include using the ancestral domain as classroom, establishing IPEd Senior High School, hiring more teachers who know the knowledge and the culture, and delivering more facilities.

“And so moving forward, we continue with our journey of solidarity with indigenous communities so that together we are able to care for our IP learners as they grow into the future,” Victor said.