00:00 Johnery Anne's kids return to school at Calwangan 1 Primary School, a last-mile school in Asturias,
00:06 Cebu.
00:07 She says the inclement weather conditions in the area make it difficult for her kids
00:10 to attend school, but she encourages them to pursue their education.
00:14 "We are determined to finish our children.
00:17 That's the only thing we can give them.
00:21 Nothing else."
00:22 Johnery Anne's kids are lucky they live nearby.
00:29 Some of the 56 students in their school have to trek the mountainside or cross the stream
00:34 just to reach their school.
00:36 "The kind of land we have, it's a slope, slope area.
00:40 And then some places here, they have to travel quite far, like an hour or more.
00:45 Hindi bero ang maglakad patungo dito, no?
00:48 Not means transportation.
00:49 If you have motorbike, good thing."
00:51 Some students drop out of school due to perennial absences from class because of these challenges.
00:57 There are only three teachers for students from Kinder to Grade 6 inside the four newly
01:01 built classrooms.
01:03 Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte chose to open the school year in Asturias
01:08 to send the message.
01:09 Government will ensure access to education even in far-flung towns.
01:14 She points out DepEd will pursue a traditional and blended approach to address problems faced
01:19 by the sector.
01:21 This includes additional classrooms and teachers, and using distance learning modalities to
01:25 prevent learning disruption.
01:27 "We feel that it is wrong to measure the Department of Education by counting classrooms.
01:34 We should measure the Department of Education by the performance of the learners."
01:39 The pilot implementation of a decongested matatag curriculum will also start this school
01:44 year.
01:45 "One from NCR, one from another region in Luzon, one from the Visayas, and one from
01:50 Mindanao.
01:51 So we are looking at around 20 schools nationwide that will participate in the pilot study of
01:56 the new curriculum."
01:58 "We will assess, we will list down the challenges, the problems encountered, and we will try
02:04 to solve it before we do a phased implementation of the matatag curriculum on school year 2024
02:11 to 2025."
02:13 Learning competencies were trimmed down from 11,000 to 3,000.
02:17 DepEd believes students will be able to absorb lessons better and ensure they can read, write,
02:22 and answer exam questions.
02:25 The agency admits there are learning losses amid the COVID-19 pandemic that need intervention
02:30 to be fixed.
02:32 From Astoria, Cebu, Kaithryn Cruz, CNN Philippines.
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