GUIDELINES ON ENROLLMENT FOR SCHOOL YEAR 2020-2021 IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY DUE TO COVID-19

GUIDELINES ON ENROLLMENT FOR SCHOOL YEAR 2020-2021 IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY DUE TO COVID-19

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has engendered massive shifts in the functioning of governments and societies around the world. While much remains unknown about COVID-19, it is clear that the virus is highly contagious, and can be lethal to certain vulnerable groups. As such, governments must manage its spread to prevent it from overwhelming national public health systems.

Chief among these management strategies is the implementation of physical distancing and community quarantine measures, which present a significant challenge for the basic education sector given its reliance on the traditional mode requiring face-to-face interaction between learners and their teachers. But while the current public health emergency suspends the conduct of business as usual, DepEd remains committed to realizing the constitutional right to education by ensuring that learning opportunities shall continue to be provided in School Year (SY) 2020-2021. In its Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP) titled Learning Opportunities Shall Be Available: The Basic Education Learning

Continuity Plan in the Time of COVID-19, DepEd offers multiple learning delivery modalities such as blended learning, distance learning, and homeschooling, either on top or in place of the face-to-face learning modality. Still, for learners to be able to formally avail of the learning opportunities, their enrollment is essential. DepEd can also utilize the enrollment process to generate learner and household information and data critical for designing the learning delivery strategies and approaches, and for planning, resource allocation, and policy formulation. However, the enrollment and data collection process must take into consideration the health and safety of its personnel and learners.

In this light, DepEd issues this policy providing schools and community learning centers (CLCs) various options for implementing a modified enrollment process that adheres to the guidelines and standards set by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), the Office of the President, and the Department of Health, and the direction of the BE-LCP.

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