September 15, 2020 – The DepEd Luna District of SDO-Isabela is ready and properly equipped for the fast-approaching opening of classes on October 5 through the support of its municipal government in establishing Educational TV (E-TV).

Luna, Isabela Mayor Jaime Atayde reported in the Handang Isip, Handa Bukas Press Conference on Wednesday that its initiative E-TV will aid the instructional materials from the Department of Education (DepEd) in its conduct of distance learning.

“The concept here is to supplement the modules, likewise additional teaching will also be used here. It’s going to be hard to teach math through modules, specifically science subjects and others. So we also want teachers to be teaching and to be shown in the videos so this would be additional work, work is done by the Department of Education. So again, every teacher in every grade level will have to teach their subjects,” Mayor Atayde said.

Students will not be only supplemented with modules, but E-TV will also provide instructional videos and live classes that will enable the teachers and students to interact with each other as if they were in a normal classroom setting.

The programs will be aired through a local TV station partner. There will be two dedicated channels for E-TV, one for the elementary program, and one for the high school program. Each episode of the programs will run at 1 hour and 30 minutes as will have a fixed time slot for every grade and year level.

According to Mayor Atayde, six of their barangays do not have access to cable TV. To make sure that all of the students will be reached by E-TV, 19 internet towers were installed near the areas with no cable TV. Episodes will be then uploaded online.

Through the coordination of the Barangay officials, the Sangguniang Kabataan, and the LGU, they were able to produce signal towers, smart towers, internet services, radios, and smart TVs in aid for E-TV. They also produced three laptops, three units of camera, and two units of Risograph duplicator machines for the production of E-TV episodes and modules.

In addition, the LGU also distributed 700 cellphone units to indigent barangays and hopes to upgrade them into tablets soon for a more comfortable learning experience for their students.

As for the internet connection, the LGU has formulated an “internet voucher” system that will enable a certain number of students to connect to the Internet for free for a limited period to download and view the E-TV episodes for the day through downloadable vouchers. Elementary students are entitled to an hour of internet connection while high school students can browse the internet for an hour and a half. This system will help evenly distribute the internet connection while ensuring that all of their 4,230 students will benefit.

“We have to spread the internet, we cannot utilize it all of the same time. This concept is managing the use of the internet because the free wi-fi in the barangay is not enough if we don’t control the use. None of the students can ever download or watch a video if all of us are watching at the same time,” explained Mayor Atayde

Mayor Atayde also expressed the importance of prioritizing health and education and urges the other LGUs to do more and support the Department in all of its programs and help the children continue learning amidst the pandemic.

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