The Department of Education (DepEd) has committed to strengthening teaching health literacy in the upcoming school year as the COVID-19 pandemic persists.
Health literacy has long been part of DepEd’s curriculum but was only boosted for the upcoming school year as the pandemic upended society, DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones said.
“Talagang built-in sa curriculum din ‘yan. Binago natin, lalong na-strengthen ang curriculum natin ngayon sa health,” Briones said in a virtual press briefing.
(That is really part of the curriculum. We changed it a bit to strengthen our curriculum on health.)
“Naka-embed iyan sa iba’t ibang subjects ng mga bata,” she said.
(That is embedded in the subjects of children.)
Briones made the remark after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the DepEd to improve health literacy among students.
The DepEd had to delay the opening of classes to Oct. 5 instead of Aug. 24 as community quarantines due to the pandemic affected the processing of learning materials and preparations of schools.
Distance learning will be implemented in the coming school year as a precautionary measure against the spread of the virus.
Briones noted that health literacy has been taught in schools even before the pandemic since there are other diseases that the students need to be wary of.
The President last week instructed Briones to capacitate teachers with health literacy skills to “better respond to a pandemic or disaster, in particular the prevention of infection.”
READ: Education sector under ‘very, very intense’ pressure: Briones
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