MANILA — The Department of Education (DepEd) clarified this Thursday that the pilot implementation of the National Learning Camps (NLC) during the coming summer break will temporarily be open only to students in Grades 7 and 8.
This follows the previous statement by DepEd spokesperson Usec. Michael Poa that the NLC covered the entire K to 12 levels, and emphasized only Grades 7 and 8.
The NLC will focus on Grades 7 and 8 first because there are other “learning interventions” that need to be implemented at other levels, according to the spokesperson.
“We have instances where we are quite old but we have not yet had the appropriate intervention when it comes to reading, for example, in English, Science and Math. So here in our lower grades, we have the National Reading Program, National Science Program and National Math Program that will be made this coming school year,” Poa told ABS-CBN News.
Because of this, DepEd will first look at the impact and trend of the NLC this summer break before expanding the program to other grade levels.
The NLC will be held from July 24th to August 25th, two weeks after the last day of regular classes on July 7th.
There are three classifications of NLC camps — the Enhancement Camp that will be conducted for three weeks, and the Consolidation Camp and Intervention Camp that will both be conducted for five weeks.
Students who receive failing grades in Math, English, and Science at the end of the school year will be recommended to Intervention Camp or also called “remediation classes.”
Other students from public schools will take “pre-tests” to check their ability level in subjects so that the school can decide whether to recommend them to Consolidation Camp or Enhancement Camp.
“If they already have a mastery, and they want to do a learning camp, they can go to our Enhancement Camp. Because here at the Enhancement Camp, you just increase your mastery in the learning areas,” said Poa.
“We have some, although they understand the concepts [pero] they still cannot say that they have fully mastered the concepts, especially since they need to be able to link the different learning areas, different learning competencies together. He will enter the Consolidation Camp there,” he added.
Participating students in such NLC are required to attend their face-to-face classes for three days per week, and four and a half hours per day.
Poa clarified that the participation of students and teachers in the camps is voluntary, but the teachers who participate will be given an additional incentive.
“First is our normal certificate of recognition, to thank them for their participation in our national learning camp. We will also give service credits on top of that in what is said to be 15 days,” according to the spokesperson.
“We are also looking at other incentives such as meals, we will also provide meals to the teachers,” he said.
Source: ABS-CBN News
