WITH less than a month to go before the opening of School Year 2021-2022, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian said the Senate will make a thorough assessment of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) readiness for a prolonged distance learning scenario.
The lawmaker issued the statement after the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged deficiencies worth P8.136 billion for the implementation of the Basic Education Learning Continuity Plan (BE-LCP).
Among the deficiencies flagged by state auditors are lapses in the budget utilization, non or incomplete submission of the required documents, and other deficiencies in disbursements and procurements. Gatchalian filed Senate Resolution No. 739 to assess if basic education
institutions can deliver quality education for the next school year, whether through face-to-face classes, distance learning, or other alternative delivery modes.
“As we prepare for the next school year, we want to make sure the DepEd can deliver quality education even as the pandemic continues. The past year’s experience should have taught us enough so we can avoid the problems in implementing distance learning,” said Gatchalian.
COA also flagged the flawed, incomplete, and delayed procurement, reproduction, and delivery of self-learning modules (SLMs), considered as the backbone of distance learning. The delays were attributed to factors such as deficient planning, poor monitoring of deliveries, and suppliers’ failure to complete the requirements on time.
State auditors added that the non-availability of the modules on the period in which they were supposed to be used deprived learners of better learning opportunities and hampered the continuity of the learning process.
The COA report added that five regional offices were not able to fully adhere to prescribed specifications for the SLMs, which resulted in poor printing quality.
The existence of errors and deficiencies in SLMs also showed procedural lapses in the checking, review, and evaluation process or system as provided for in DepEd Memorandum 82, s. 2017, the report said.
DepEd responds
In its response to the COA’s findings, DepEd emphasized that “none of the initial findings pertained to corruption, malversation of public funds, negligence, or the betrayal of public trust.” DepEd added that in 2019, the Audit Observation Memorandum (AOM) Task Force was created to help improve the addressing of audit concerns.