BUDGET INTERPELLATION QUESTIONS FOR DepEd
Notable items / areas in the budget
Pilot Implementation of Limited Face-to-Face Classes began on 15 November 2021 and ends on 31 January 2022
Issues
Questions
Safety of students, teaching and non-teaching personnel in participating schools
What safety precautions have been established to ensure the continued implementation of this program? Will teaching and non-teaching personnel working in participating schools be required to be vaccinated against COVID19? Will participating students who fall under the 12- to 17-year-old age group be prioritized for vaccination? What about children under 12 years old? Will they also be prioritized for vaccination? With the impending budget cut, will the Department be able to install safety equipment to ensure that our youth and teachers are protected once face-to-face classes resume, such as barriers, thermal scanners etc. Will public schools be provided with hand soap, alcohol, disinfectants and adequate water supply to ensure that students who will come to school will have one of the best defenses against COVID-19 which is handwashing? Over the years we have repeatedly received reports of lack of water supply in many of these schools, with the budget cut, will the Department be able
to provide this very much needed resource especially as it plans to reopen schools? Notable absence of participating schools in the NCR1 despite the region having, by far, the highest vaccination rates nationwide (88.13% of the targeted population in the region is fully vaccinated as of 2 November 2021).2
Minors are allowed to go to malls but not in schools under Alert Level 2.3
Support to learners and teachers
With the limited number of schools conducting face-toface classes, our quality of education continues to be a major concern of parents (especially among poor households who cannot tutor their child) and a number of CSOs, especially with the lack of support and access of a number of
1
What are the criteria that the DepEd established to determine which areas are safe to implement the limited face-toface classes? Given the relatively high vaccination rates in the NCR in addition to the low incidence of COVID-19, why are there no schools opening to limited faceto-face classes in the region? What is the logic behind this decision?
Should Metro Manila be able to sustain its upward trend of vaccinations and maintain control of its COVID-19 cases, can we expect to see NCR-based schools on the DepEd’s list for pilot implementation of face-toface classes?
As we pilot-test face-to-face classes, the number of students who may attend school will still be limited. Is there any initiative in the DepEd to recruit and hire para-teachers for our learners under our blended learning approach?
https://mb.com.ph/2021/11/12/deped-100-public-schools-all-set-for-pilot-face-to-face-classes-onnov-15/ 2 https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/multimedia/infographic/03/23/21/philippines-covid-19-vaccinetracker 3 https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1510804/abalos-minors-allowed-in-malls-as-metro-manila-shifts-to-alertlevel-2
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public school students across the country. There are calls to augment specific line-item budget in our blended learning approach.
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Under the 2022 budget, are we providing load allowances to teachers who also opts to use online learning modalities in class? Are we allocating budget for health and safety equipment, expansion of the voucher and education contracting system, budgeting for infrastructure retrofitting and renovations suited for infection prevention and control, and granting stipends to learners? May we know the details of these allotments?