Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 11) — The Department of Education (DepEd) on Thursday said it has piloted the training of public school teachers to spot warning signs of bullying in certain school areas.
“You have to be able to determine or identify learners that need intervention,” DepEd Undersecretary Michael Poa said during a briefing in Malacañang.
“And ang isang project ng DepEd ngayon is to come up with an effective screening system,” he also said. “So alongside the screening system, gusto din natin mag-train teachers and parents to spot red flags.”
[Translation: And one project of DepEd today is to come up with an effective screening system. So alongside the screening system, we want to train the teachers and parents to spot red flags.]
Bullying has been identified as one of the main issues that need to be addressed alongside teacher’s welfare and students’ malnutrition problem to improve the performance of Filipino learners.
Education officials discussed this with President Bongbong Marcos during a sectoral meeting on Thursday.
According to Poa, most of the reports received by the DepEd’s anti-child abuse hotline involve bullying.
It includes cyberbullying as some students use various social media platforms to harass their peers online, he also said.
According to the agency’s data acquired from Nov. 24 2023, to Jan. 11, 2024, DepEd received 40 incidents of bullying in general.
The official also noted that hotlines alone are not enough as reporting measures of DepEd, adding that they need to improve their reporting integration on bullying situations in schools.
“Kasi katulad nga nung kanina, natanong tayo kung mayroon ba tayong hotline, so that makes me feel that the department is not doing enough to really push itong… issue natin, itong reporting issue natin,” he said.
[Translation: Just like earlier, we were asked if we have a hotline, so that makes me feel that the department is not doing enough to push this issue.]
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About 120 cases of reported bullying have been resolved by the DepEd, according to Poa. However, he noted that the 120 resolved cases are not enough because there are issues that were not officially.
“We also want to see if we need to put in our curriculum the responsible use of internet,” Poa said. “So that is something we are looking at.”
He added that the DepEd is working with the Department of Health (DOH) in providing mental health and other support services to protect the social and emotional well-being of students.
“Meron naman tayong budget na talaga for mental health so that is something that our operations team is crafting together with DOH pagdating sa mental health program, meaning counseling in schools, advocacies, and referral naman to the DOH pag kailangan na talaga ng experts,” Poa said.
[Translation: We already have the budget for mental health so that is something that our operations team is crafting together with DOH when it comes to mental health program, meaning counseling in schools, advocacies, and referral to the DOH when experts are urgently needed,” Poa said.
Meanwhile, Poa added that the DepEd’s review schedule on the senior high school’s K-12 curriculum is targeted in May this year.
“Ang review is May 2024, after review, pe-present na sa atin, bibigay na sa atin kung ano ‘yung mga napansin nila. Then we will start on the revision process [of the K-12 curriculum],” he explained.
[Translation: The review is in May 2024, after the review, it will be presented to us, and they will give us their assessment. Then we will start on the revision process of the K-12 curriculum.]
CNN Philippines’ Kristelle Razon contributed to this story.
The data also showed that there were 27 reported incidents of cyberbullying, 83 incidents of physical bullying and 28 incidents of verbal bullying.
In a statement on Friday, DepEd said it also instructed its regional offices to submit their reports on bullying and other forms of abuse quarterly.
