THE DEPARTMENT of Education (DepEd) plans to intensify anti-drug, reproductive health and disaster risk education under orders of President Rodrigo Duterte.
“Ang instructions ni President (Duterte) na i-enhance, una, ‘yung drug education because we know that it is [a] menace [and] rising,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones told the Varsitarian in a chance interview at the 2nd National K to 12 Conference last Jan. 10.
The DepEd will coordinate with the Department of Health to provide counselling on reproductive health, Briones said.
“[W]e have [a rising number] of teenage pregnancy, HIV-AIDS as well as prostitution pero ang [concern] namin dito sa DepEd is the enrichment of the curriculum and counseling period,” she said.
Briones also stressed the importance of students’ awareness in dealing with natural disasters.
“That’s not something strange to you because when there are floods in UST, many of you [will] sometimes stay overnight. But you are in a very secure building,” she said, comparing the situation of UST with provincial schools.
“[W]hen you are out in the provinces and houses which are brought down by winds and by storms, [it] can be very traumatic,” she added.
Briones also said the Cabinet was working to restore a quick-response educational aid fund.
The two-day K to 12 conference was held at the Philippine International Convention Center and attended by over a thousand DepEd delegates from all over the country.
It focused on the best practices in the implementation of programs from Kindergarten to Senior High School (SHS), governance and the learning environment, and partnerships and linkages for SHS.
