Supported by the Australian government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Save the Children in partnership with the Department of Education (DepEd) is implementing the Sustaining Education Reform Gains (SERG) Project until 2021. The SERG project is working with DepEd to ensure the continuity of education amidst the COVID-19 pandemic through the Learning Continuity Plan (LCP) for Basic Education. The LCP is DepEd’s major response in ensuring the safety and protection of learners, teachers, and personnel while adapting to the “new normal.”
A series of virtual consultation meetings was held in April and May in an effort to tap the expertise, talents, and resources of DepEd’s internal and external partners. The DepEd, together with partner institutions and organizations, developed the LCP, which includes key features on K-12 curriculum adjustments, alignment of learning materials, various modalities of delivery, and corresponding teacher and parent/guardian training for homeschooling. SERG supported the crafting of the LCP through its technical assistance to the National Educators Academy of the Philippines (NEAP) on the Capacity for Teachers and School Leaders section and its inputs to the Learning Strategies and Modalities section. SERG likewise adjusted its technical assistance package for the SERG regions and divisions to adapt to the current situation and ensure full support to DepEd’s LCP. Among them is the provision of resource packages on health promoting habits in schools, such as WASH materials, and on teacher pedagogical readiness in using major alternative modalities in teaching learners in the “new normal."