The Department of Education (DepEd) is organizing multi-level instruction to schoolchildren in evacuation centers like it did during the Mt. Pinatubo eruption in 1991.

“We’re now organizing in the different evacuation centers because there are a lot of families who could not really go back because they have no homes so they are stating for quite a long time in different evacuation centers,” said DepEd undersecretary Vilma Labrador in an interview with the Manila Bulletin on Saturday.

Multi-level instruction gathers schoolchildren of different grade levels and teaches them as group using modular instructional materials.

The multi-level instruction will be conducted in typhoon affected areas in Regions I, II, III, Region IV-A (Calabarzon) and the National Capital Region.

On Monday, Labrador will have a final briefing with regional directors affected by typhoons Ondoy and Peperng for the special program.

“I think we can do it immediately because we already did this during Mt. Pinatubo’s eruption. I was a director then when this thing happened, we will just reactivate it and we have our modular materials. We will just use the modular instructional materials, the teachers will be given all of those briefing, the teachers know how to do this,” she added.

DepEd will gather regular teachers and teachers for its Alternative Learning System (ALS) and distribute them to different non-school evacuation centers.

“Unlike in schools that are being used as evacuation centers, which already have teachers, we will bring teachers to these centers like in Ultra in Pasig. They will then gather the children in those centers and teach them,” Labrador explained.

Starting Monday, teacher-volunteers will identify students and hopefully start the multi-level instruction.

School used as evacuation centers on the other hand will also do the same even if the children victims are non-students in the school they are currently residing.

“In a school evacuation center it will be orderly delivery because there are already available teachers, they will still organize the multi-level instruction,” Labrador said.

Meanwhile, Department of Education (DepEd) Jesli Lapus personally delivered and distributed relief goods to families affected by typhoon Ondoy in the province of Laguna Friday.

Lapus delivered donated relief goods to areas affected by the Laguna Lake overflow that submerged thousands of houses. The areas visited by Lapus include Los Baños, Calamba, San Pedro, and Cabuyao.

DepEd specifically distributed the relief goods to families who are still staying inside public schools in the areas. The relief goods were donated by different DepEd regional offices. The packs include basic necessities like rice, sugar, coffee, bath soap, among others.

Lapus expressed his gratitude to the regions and other schools who have donated needed relief goods for the typhoon victims.

“What we are seeing is our bayanihan spirit at work in our education system,” Lapus added. “This can really help our schoolchildren and their families get through this crisis.”