Several challenges loom as the education officials in Bohol are looking into implementing “blended” classes for the coming school year.
This was revealed by first district Board Member Aldner Damalerio in a radio interview on Monday, June 22, over “Open Forum”.
He explained that the “blended” classes scheme is a combination of online instruction and paper-based modules.
In the same interview, Damalerio said that the leading problem for the conduct of the online portion of the “blended” classes is the internet connectivity.
He said that there are only 210 to 215 cellular sites scattered all over the province to serve 973 elementary schools and 182 national high schools plus private schools based in the province.
Furthermore, Damalerio said that the challenge is to increase the number of cell sites to accommodate the projected increase in demand for data as soon as the “blended” classes begin.
The first disrrict board member said the immediate solution to the potential network congestion is to use latest cellular data technology to boost the absorbing capacity of the networks of the leading telecommunications network in the country—Globe and Smart.
However, deploying the additional equipment for additional network capacity is easier said than done, Damalerio revealed.
He said personnel from the two telecommunications networks want to enter the province to deploy the equipment but find the 14-day quarantine is too long.
The officials of the two telco networks asked Damalerio if there is a way to cut the quarantine period which will also prolong the deployment period and delay the solution implementation that will increase the two telco networks’ capacity.
Aside from network capacity, Damalerio pointed out another challenge on the side of the students, which is the acquisition of gadgets that will be used for online classes.
He said, high school students are going to be more exposed to online classes than elementary students, thus the former need to acquire gadgets such as tablets or smartphones to access online lessons and digital forms.
He also mentioned the parents’ problem regarding the cost of gaining internet access so that their children can access online lessons.
At this juncture, Damalerio said telco networks may come up with budget-friendly promotions for students specifically those to be used for online classes.
The board member has been engaging in virtual meetings with telco network officials and officials of the Bohol and Tagbilaran divisions of the Department of Education (DepEd) to resolve the challenges on the conduct of “blended” classes here in the province.
In the same interview, Damalerio said he noticed that DepEd officials here are open to suggestions to realize the conduct of “blended” classes this coming school year.