Bringing the “classroom feels” to a whole new level, students can now adapt to the new normal way of learning with Valenzuela Live Online Streaming School – Valenzuela City’s newest platform for education’s distance learning modality to manage the risks brought by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

This school year marks another hopeful year for every Batang Valenzuelano as they embark on a new lifestyle on meeting their teachers, accessing their lessons and listening to discussions outside the traditional classroom set up.

The City Government of Valenzuela and the Department of Education (DepEd) Valenzuela heeds the call for a major change in the education arena. The Valenzuela Live Online Streaming School will now roll out this incoming school year 2020-2021 after weeks of live simulations throughout the different public elementary and high school institutions in the City.

Speaking before all public elementary and high school principals as the implementor of the program, Mayor REX Gatchalian shares the “Valenzuela formula,” stating “I think we are the only LGU that gotten as far as  trying to come up with an actual package on how we do distance learning. We complemented your [DepEd] learning module with technology... We simulated it, we have done everything already... Lahat naman iyan template ng [All of the templates are from] DepEd except we put something unique in the middle which is the Valenzuela formula.”

“The difference here is that we are going to still pretend that there is school through [video] streaming... It is like a real classroom pa rin naman nawala lang doon iyong estudyante kasi nasa bahay sila [Still, it is like a real classroom but the only difference is that the students are not physically around since they are at home],” Mayor REX added.

Understanding that school opening is just around the corner, DepEd Valenzuela readily prepared all the learning packets including modules, work sheets and study guides designed for the most essential learning competencies of students, making this accessible through door-to-door delivery, barangay delivery or parents can pick-up the learning packets at designated schools or 3S Centers. Announcement on the distribution will be announced in the next coming weeks.

According to a study by DepEd Valenzuela, it is estimated that 22,000 students do not have a smartphone out of 130,000 public elementary and high school enrollees for this school year. With this, the City Government of Valenzuela will also lend gadgets to target beneficiaries for them to catch up with the online lessons – the estimated cost of the gadgets amounting to PhP 69 million for the program to roll out.

Instead of parents allotting their budget for school uniforms and daily “baon” of their kids, the budget will now be prioritized for ensuring a WiFi, mobile data or internet connection is available while students watch the video streaming of lessons through their gadget, with Valenzuela City School of Mathematics and Science (ValMaSci) serving as an offsite classroom. An I.T. technician and a moderator will also aid the teachers on their discussions.  

For students who have questions and queries about a certain lesson, virtual communities for follow-up discussions are also set up and can be accessed using free online platforms like Facebook. For the grades, students will create their own portfolios for assessment of teachers which will still be based on the grading system and policies set by DepEd.

As hard as it may seem at first, parents are also adjusting to education’s new normal as they help their children to also learn and catch up with their lessons while securing them at the safety of their homes.

During one of the live simulations of the Valenzuela Live Online Streaming School, a parent from Punturin Elementary School commented that the idea at first is quite difficult along with the challenges on having a stable internet connection at home but upon seeing what the video streaming would be like, it seemed okay for them saying “Sa akin noong una, parang mahirap kung through internet lang talaga kasi unang unang iniisip ko yung sa connection... Pero noong nakita ko, okay naman sa akin [For me at first it seemed difficult if it will be through the internet only and I was also concerned of our connection… But when I saw it I thought it was okay.]”

Ensuring that education continues, the City Government of Valenzuela, DepEd Valenzuela and all parents are in unison to its objective to give the best for every Batang Valenzuelano – with education within reach beyond the limits of the four corners of the classroom with Valenzuela Live Online Streaming School.