The Department of Education (DepEd) may provide monthly connectivity and communications allowance to their teachers and personnel, according to an agency official.
The development was amid calls to increase funding for personnel allowance now that DepEd is implementing blended learning methods – or mixed offline and online learning.
In a memorandum shared by Education Undersecretary Alain Pascua on his Facebook page, DepEd called on regional, division, and school employees to register and update their information in DepEd commons account so that the agency can prepare for the distribution of connectivity allowance.
“Kasalukuyang pinaghahandaan ang posibilidad ng pagbibigay ng buwanang probisyon para sa connectivity at communications ng mga teachers at personnel ng DepEd,” said Pascua on his Facebook page.
“Upang makatulong sa pagpaplano at pagtukoy kung ano ang malakas na signal sa bawat lugar at tahanan, hinihiling po namin na mag-register at mag-update ng kanilang mga DepEd Commons Account,” he added.
Employees need to enter their contact details, as well as the mobile internet network provider they want to use for online teaching.
Also read: DepEd needs 43,000 teachers – Gatchalian
DepEd prepares monthly internet allowance for teachers, staff
Only those who have registered and activated their accounts will be given an allowance once it is implemented, according to Pascua. They are given until September 21 to register.
Face-to-face learning is suspended in schools due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Classes will open on October 5 for public schools. Some private schools started classes this July, but some still decided to follow the schedule set by DepEd.
And now that distance learning is being implemented, some teachers and students have revealed that they are having difficulty with the online set-up.
DepEd, on the other hand, insisted that there was no academic freeze this year despite some calls for the school year to be canceled due to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, on Wednesday, asked DepEd to address the 2.3 million students who are not enrolled two weeks before the school year opens on October 5.
“We consider this 2.3 million as dropouts. What we do not want to happen is to have permanent dislocation of children. Instead of studying, they would just permanently go to work,” he said.