MANILA –To underscore the responsibility of all education stakeholders in the region, the Department of Education (DepEd) Region 4 held on Tuesday the 2018 Calabarzon Basic Education Summit in Cainta, Rizal.
At the event, DepEd Region 4 Director Diosdado San Antonio reported the region’s achievements which were made possible through the support provided by the local government units (LGUs), non-government organizations, parent-teacher associations, private schools associations, businesses and other stakeholders in the area.
San Antonio said the enrolment for both public and private schools in the region for the current school year has increased by 0.26 percent.
He added the growth rate could be attributed to the increase of learners in Kindergarten with 0.78 percent increase, Junior High School with 5.83 percent increase and Senior High School (SHS) with 15.13 percent increase this year.
“We were saved by the private schools because they took a significant number of learners in the Calabarzon, imagine when we were trying to launch the Grades 11 and 12, when the buildings were not yet ready and the teachers were not yet available, the private sector was ready. We were able to proceed with the smooth implementation of the Senior High School program,” he said.
Meanwhile, the growth rate for elementary schools has decreased by 1.32 percent compared to the previous school year.
San Antonio explained that this could be the impact of population management mechanisms implemented in the area.
Citing an increase in the number of SHS learners who will undergo work immersion for school year 2018 to 2019, San Antonio said the success of the SHS program in the region resulted from the generosity of private establishments, non-government organizations, cooperatives and LGUs which provided venues for the learners’ training.
“For the previous school year there were 60,526 SHS learners who underwent work immersion. This year, there will be 68,321 learners to undergo immersion and 905 immersion coordinators. That is a ratio of 1:75 ratio of coordinators to students,” he said.
San Antonio said there are still delays in the delivery of the classrooms needed in the region. Out of the 11,005 classrooms needed, San Antonio reported that only 7,210 have been delivered.
“For the furniture, we have received 177,511 but we’re still awaiting for some items we have ordered…we have 392,155 learning materials for Grade 11 and 330,885 for Grade 12, and we have energized about 93 percent of the schools in the region including those in Lipa. We also have received reports that DepEd with energize all schools at the latest in 2019,” he said.
San Antonio also reported other regional achievements including the ISO certification of the DepEd Calabarzon office and the region’s top performance in the National School Press Conference, National Economic and Development Authority Gender and Development Implementation, National Festival of Talents, Palarong Pambansa and Research Managment Awards.
“All these, thank you to the hard work of the whole team and partners in various regions and projects to ensure that the delivery of services will be efficient and effective,” he said.
San Antonio encouraged all the education stakeholders in the region to focus on their strategic priorities moving forward, keeping the welfare of learners in mind.
“Even if we’re doing well in the different competitions of learners, we are still very much challenged in the achievement rate of our learners in the schools. We’re unable to make students learn well, that’s the thing that gives us a lot of courage to continue with our strategic priorities so that we will have quality, accessible and liberating education,” he said.
DepEd Calabarzon’s strategic priorities include pro-active child mapping for inclusive education, team-based delivery of functions and services, ICT-enabled systems and standardized procedures, needs-based capacity building for continuous improvement and sustainable partnerships and linkages. (Ma. Teresa Montemayor/PNA)
