DepEd bolsters preventive drug

education program through curriculum,

By Merlina Hernando-Malipot

In line with its efforts to continuously intensify its existing efforts to provide Filipino learners
with safe, nurturing and drug-free environment, the Department of Education (DepEd) bolstered
the preventive drug education program through curriculum and instruction.

DepEd Secretary Leonor Magtolis-Briones (DepEd / MANILA BULLETIN)

Education Secretary Leonor Briones issued DepEd’s Preventive Drug Education Program
(PDEP) Policy for Curriculum and Instruction through DepEd Order No. 30 dated July 12, 2018.
The enhanced policy puts a premium on the creation of curricular platforms that shall ensure the
integration of essential messages across all learning areas, and strengthen key competencies in
the K to 12 basic education program.

Briones, on many occasions, has emphasized the DepEd is responding to the directives of the
President to strengthen and enrich further curricular reforms on anti-illegal drugs which is part of
her 10-point agenda for DepEd. The department, she noted, has always been focused on the
preventive approach as part of its broader, more holistic drug education program.

“Drug prevention is a collective responsibility,” Briones said. “DepEd is not the only agency
involved in the campaign against illegal drugs…you have media itself, you have church
institutions, you have civil society organizations,” she added.

The PDEP, DepEd said, was developed in consultation with key stakeholders including experts,
administrators, teachers, education leaders and youth representatives. The enhanced policy also
aims to “forge stronger partnership with various stakeholders in promoting PDEP.”

Briones noted that the policy shall apply to DepEd officials and employees at all levels, as well
as to learners in basic education. Private schools may adopt the policy, and are encouraged to
formulate their own program consistent with the DepEd issuance.

With the policy in place, Briones said the PDEP shall be “mainstreamed in all programs and
projects of the curriculum and instruction, covering curriculum standards, curriculum delivery,
learning resources, and assessment.”

While the policy’s guiding principles stated that learning outcomes shall be anchored on areas
such as health education and Edukasyon sa Pagpapakatao (EsP) to ensure progression and
continuity, Briones also “emphasized that preventive drug education concepts shall also be
integrated with other learning areas.”

The strategies for curriculum standards include the development of PDEP framework; curricular
mapping; use of research and evidence-based practice; and ensuring minimum standards in
curricular, cocurricular, and extracurricular undertakings to supplement the academic curriculum.

On the other hand, the curriculum delivery involves the provision of developmentally-
appropriate, culture-sensitive and evidence-based program; use of interactive methods and
structured sessions; provision of well-designed daily lesson plans; implementation of alternative
delivery modes and flexible learning options; and conduct of regular education and information
activities.

Briones noted that the field offices shall also be given technical assistance in the development,
contextualization, localization and indigenization of learning resources which shall be
developmentally-and age-appropriate. “For assessment, core messages and key concepts shall be
included in the test development process,” she said.

The PDEP policy, Briones noted, was also anchored on earlier issuance including DepEd
Memorandum No. 200, s. 2016 (Strengthening the National Drug Education Program in
Schools); DO No. 37, s. 2017 (Department of Education Drug-Free Workplace Policy); and DO
No. 40, s. 2017 (Guidelines for the Conduct of Random Drug Testing for Public and Private
Secondary Schools).

Tags: curriculum, DepEd, Drug Education Program, EsP, instruction, PDEP, Secretary Leonor
Briones

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DepEd launches mobile app to monitor

By Merlina Hernando-Malipot

To monitor the status of learners who were vaccinated with Dengvaxia, mobile applications were
launched by Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Health (DOH) on
Monday.
(REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco/File Photo/MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)

In partnership with Galileo Software Services, Inc., Indra Philippines and Microsoft, two
monitoring apps will soon be available so parents and guardians of learners that were inoculated
with Dengvaxia can report and seek the assistance they might need.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones, however clarified that this will not be mandatory. “Parents
who are interested in tracing and monitoring the state of the children can take advantage of these
two kind of apps,” she said.

Undersecretary for Administration Alain Del Pascua said that DepEd is introducing these apps as
an “alternative way to be faster and to be more efficient by the use of technology in monitoring.”
He also noted that it “will not complicate” the monitoring and “it will only facilitate the
gathering and dissemination of information.”

Indra and Microsoft developed the “RSVP (Register, Serve, Validate & Plan) Kaizala App” and
Galileo created the “Abizo” app. Pascua noted that both applications will be accessing the same
database. “Whatever both application would be adding on top of the database can still be
accessed by the other,” he said.
Meanhwile, DOH Secretary Dr. Francisco Duque III said the health system has been devolved to
the local government units (LGUs). “The way the application as I understand it will help the
parents and teachers to navigate through the health system,” he explained.

“It is important to register the service delivery network from the local government units which
essentially begins with provisional healthcare by the barangay health station, then the next level
will be rural health units, then after that the city health centers and then the district hospitals…
it’s very important that these are included in the database,” Duque said. “And also the mapping
of the service delivery network which will be accessed by the parents or but the teachers once
symptoms of whatever the vaccinees experience,” he added.

Duque noted that this will still go through a “gestation period.” Thus, it is not expected to work
seamlessly overnight. “It all depends in the quality of database that we provide… not just the
names of children but also the mapping of the LGUs and DOH healthcare facilities,” he added.

Pascua also explained that the real time online monitoring can also be expanded to cover not just
the students vaccinated by Dengvaxia but other illnesses. The said apps, he added, are expected
to be fully functional by the end of August.

This application including the sharing of data, Pascua said, is also under the supervision of the
National Privacy Commission to be compliant with the Data Privacy Act. “What we are now
looking at later are the provisions when it comes to sending of the data from the learner to the
database or from the database to the guardians and learners,” he ended.

Tags: Dengvaxia, DepEd, DOH, Leonor Briones, mobile application, monitoring, vaccinees

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DepEd to open 2,000 clinics in public

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Published July 14, 2018, 4:42 PM

By Merlina Hernando-Malipot

By next year, the Department of Education (DepEd) will establish over 2,000 clinics in public schools
nationwide in line with its efforts to ensure that all learners are provided with the basic primary health.
(MANILA BULLETIN)

Undersecretary for Administration Alain Del Pascua, in a recent press briefing, announced that a total of 2,101
clinics will be established in central elementary schools in the country. “They will become the ‘hubs’ or
centers of the town where other schools would also be served,” he said.

These hubs, Pascua said, would also become the physical centers of Oplan Kalusugan (OK) sa DepEd which
was launched earlier. The “OK sa DepEd” is now the flagship health program of the department. It is a
converging effort where health plans, policies, programs, and activities are implemented to “ensure that all
school children are provided with basic primary health and dental care to allow them to attain their full
educational potential.”

Pascua said that it will be the “first time that we will renovate the classrooms into clinics.” These “hubs,” he
explained, will have “dental chairs, equipment, medical and examination tables, and all the things that we need
for clinics will be established there.” The funds, he noted, have been allocated by Department of Budget and
Management (DBM.) “We will start to implement this starting next year – as soon as it is approved by the
Congress,” he added.

These “hubs,” Pascua explained, will be separate from the School-Based Barangay Health Centers or Barangay
Health Stations which are the initiatives of Department of Health (DOH). “We are in the process of reviewing
this program and we will be consulting the DOH on how to implement it with this new development now,” he
added.

Currently, Pascua admitted that not all public schools have their own clinics.
“There are some schools that have clinics but not all,” Pascua said. This is why DepEd will be establishing the
said clinics by next year. “This is the first time that we will institute a comprehensive renovation of classrooms
into clinics,” he explained.

Asked why not all schools have clinics, Pascua explained “that when the rationalization plan was implanted in
DepEd, there were definition of priorities, core competence, etc one of the results is that the health care was
lodged in the DOH and DILG and it was not focused on schools.”

“But because there were many issues and concerns that came out, it was found out that there was really a need
to establish clinics because the students go to school,” Pascua said. He noted that the schools become a
catchment area “that is why we need to establish clinics here.”

“Now, we have different programs converging into one through the OK sa DepEd and it is better that we have
physical hubs serving as physical centers for this program,” Pascua said. He noted that the implementation of
different DepEd health programs will not be separate since it will become comprehensive implementation
through the OK sa DepEd program.

The “OK sa DepEd Program” converges the five major DepEd school health programs namely School-Based
Feeding Program (SBFP); National Drug Education Program (NDEP); Adolescent Reproductive Health
Education (ARH); Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) in Schools (WinS) Program; and medical, nursing,
and dental services.

It also aims to ensure that all DepEd school health personnel and school children practice healthier behavior
that they can do on their own, and get linked up with health providers and local government units (LGUs) for
child and adolescent health services. “This, in essence, is our answer in fulfilling our commitment in the social
development goal (SDGs),” Pascua ended.

Tags: central elementary schools, clinics, DepEd, primary health, public schools, The Department of Education

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