DepEd 'very prepared' for senior high school roll out

Students and their parents can expect a "very prepared" Department of Education (DepEd) on June 13 especially with more than 11,000 senior high schools (SHS) opening to welcome the first batch of Grade 11 enrollees.

"Very prepared for a first timer opening 11,000 senior high schools in every municipality and city. I think this is the boldest move the department has ever undertaken," outgoing Education Secretary Armin Luistro said on Thursday during the launch of the SHS help desk.

Luistro said the DepEd gave students the proper time to choose their career paths from a list of tracks the SHS program offers.

Luistro even compared his excitement to that of a mother expecting her first baby.

"We feel like a mother expectant for its first baby. While we have done everything possible to prepare for it, I don't think no one can prepare for the great joy that one will see and realize on the first day of classes," he said.

The DepEd chief, meanwhile, recognized that challenges would still rise on the first weeks of the school year, but the schools have already prepared on these potential concerns for at least two years already.

"I am so certain that there will be challenges on Day 1 but none of those will be insurmountable especially since our schools, our divisions have prepared for this in the past 2-3 years," Luistro said.

SHS help desk

DepEd, in partnership with IBEX Global Solutions, received more than 1,000 cases since the start of the SHS help desk last May 23 — 937 were via phone calls and 71 through e-mails.

Concerns about the voucher program eligibility composed 68 percent of the total phone queries and 15 percent asked about the voucher program school admission.

Other concerns include voucher program billing, teacher hiring and textbooks, school permits and fees, and enrollment requirement and process.

As of June 8, 489 out of the 1,008 total cases have been resolved, while 519 cases have been escalated to the appropriate offices.

The nature of the concerns composed of 891 queries, 79 complaints, and 38 requests.

DepEd Senior High School Help Desk team leader Pet Padua said the complaints range from unqualified voucher applicants to SHS not accepting enrollees who did not graduate from junior high school in the same institution.

The help desk runs until June 30, but Luistro said DepEd is still ready to assist students and late enrollees.

Meeting with Briones

Meanwhile, Luistro admitted having two “long, fruitful, cordial” meetings with his successor, Leonor Briones.

Luistro added a series of meetings would still happen between him and Briones and the different units and their counterparts until July 1 where the former formally turns over the post to the latter.

Asked on how he was stretched in DepEd, Luistro replied; “If you are in DepEd, you will always be stretched every single day because you're managing 47,000 schools.”

“Every single month there are at least two major activities happening nationally or in the different regions... DepEd is the favorite partner of any events organizer. We are used to this. We are overstretched, and that's why at the end of 22 days, I would have to take a rest,” he said.

Luistro, who is also a La Sallian brother, said he is looking forward into getting back to his teaching duties at the De La Salle University after his term. — APG/RSJ, GMA News