Regional Guidelines

on Fostering
Academic Ease Across
Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction and
Assessment for SY
2021-2022
RM No. NCR 572 s. 2021
The Department of Education – National
Capital Region (DepEd-NCR) through the
Curriculum and Learning Management
Division (CLMD) strongly supports the
Department’s advocacy in promoting
“Sulong EduKALIDAD”, addressing
challenges in quality basic education.
“Tasks simplification, collaboration of
concerned persons to harmonize
outputs, effort, and schedules, diving
room for flexibility without sacrificing
quality of outputs to facilitate
adaptation to the new normal setup
across governance levels.”
Suggestions on how the general view
on academic ease can be
operationalized ( Suggested Measures
to Operationalize Academic Ease
Across Areas of Curriculum, Instruction,
Assessment and Learners’ Support),
considering the peculiarities in the
context of the Sixteen Division Offices
(SDOs).
For SY 2021-2022, it is suggested that
a day be allotted to non-curricular
activities (half day only for those
taking Special Curricular Programs and
Senior High School learners).
This is in consonance of DO 14, s.
2020 where schools are mandated to
further develop the physical and
mental resilience of learners
throughout the school year. Sample
non-curricular activities are the
following: leadership training, sports,
scouting, training on independent
learning.
Saturdays are included in the
school calendar. Hence it is
advised that this day be
utilized for portfolio day,
remediation to address
learning gaps (untaught
competencies in SY 2020-2021)
and enrichment.
There must be a set prescribed
consultation schedule that must
be followed to ensure that
learning facilitators’ queries are
addressed while teachers are also
given the opportunity to have
quality time for self and family.
Regular coordination amongst same
grade level/section teachers is
necessary to plan and design the
Weekly Home Learning Plan(WHLP).
Integrate assessment across learning
areas, whenever possible, and discuss
issues needs to be addressed at their
level.
All exercise and activities indicated in
the modules are treated as formative
assessment. As per OUIC-2020-307,
teachers may opt to identify selected
exercises to be answered by the
learners.
This should be communicated in the
Weekly Home Learning Plan. Teacher
should give students considerable time
to finish their assigned tasks.
As per DO 31, s. 2020, summative
assessments shall be in the form of
written works and performance tasks.
DepEd-NCR would like reiterate and
encourage the conduct of integrative
summative assessment tasks.
For kindergarten, assessment is not in a
form of a play, games or activities that
show their development progress.
Kindergarten teachers are advised to
refer to the kindergarten MELCS to
ensure that assessment activities are
aligned.
Subject area teachers are advised to
coordinate their assessment schedule
to ensure that the learners will be
able to accomplish the tasks (written
and performance tasks) and produce
a quality output. Assessment is a
learning task hence should be
reflected in the WHLP. It is suggested
that each learner will only have a
maximum of two (2) assessments per
day.
As emphasized in DM CI-2020-00162,
the presence of learning facilitators in
the home to guide learners is an
important contributory factor in the
success of distance learning.
Learning facilitators must be
knowledgeable on how to use the WHLP
to guide learners and monitor their
progress towards the completion of the
learning tasks throughout the week.
Self-monitoring tool should be
regularly accomplished because
this shall be the open
communication between the
teachers and learning
facilitators (parents/ guardian/
older sibling/relative) to
seamlessly provide support to
learners.
The implementation of academic ease should be
observed and monitored across levels of
governance. At the Regional level, the Field
Technical Assistance Division (FTAD) shall take
the lead in monitoring compliance to the
Regionwide implementation of the academic
ease. At the SDO level, the School Governance
and Operation Division and Curriculum
Implementation Division shall jointly work
together to ensure that challenges encountered
of the field level are addressed through the
provision of needs based technical assistance
(TA).
 Suggested Measures to Operationalize Academic Ease Across Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction, Assessment and Learners’ Support
Areas Suggestions to Learners
Teachers/Learning Facilitators
Possible Suggested Actions
Issues/Concerns

LEARNERS’ Teachers may group learners
SUPPORT together according to their
proximity to one another so that
Internet each one can communicate to one
Connectivity another even in the absence of
internet. It would be best if a
member of the group has access to
internet
Failure to join in • Contact teacher via text/call or
synchronous class social media (whichever is
due to poor internet available means)
connectivity • Contact a classmate/friend
living nearby with means to
contact the teacher to inform
why she/he failed to join the
synchronous class.
• Ask nearest classmate/peer
group about what transpired in
the synchronous class to catch
up the next session.
 Suggested Measures to Operationalize Academic Ease Across Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction, Assessment and Learners’ Support
Areas Suggestions to Learners
Teachers/Learning Facilitators
Possible Suggested Actions
Issues/Concerns

Consultation Teachers need to set a Having question/s or • Contact the teacher and raise
Period consultation period and duly problems with any of the questions/problem during
communicate the same with the the learning areas. prescribed period of
parents and learners. consultation.

Learning facilitators may contact

learning area teachers during
prescribed consultation periods.
Failure to contact the teacher
during this time whenever the
concern is urgent, text the
concerned teacher.
 Suggested Measures to Operationalize Academic Ease Across Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction, Assessment and Learners’ Support
Areas Suggestions to Learners
Teachers/Learning Facilitators
Possible Suggested Actions
Issues/Concerns

Establish Teachers need to identify Need peer study • Enjoy the presence of peer study
Peer Study potential peer coaches who can be group support group
Groups assigned to support their peers. • Explore new concepts with a
Any of the following that works in peer or peer study groups
the context of learners maybe set- • Share ideas
up: • Coach peers
• Study Buddy • Have fun doing activities with
• Peer Study Group peer
• Small Study Group
• Nearest Neighbor Study Circle

Mechanics on how learners can be

rewarded is needed to reinforce
the behavior of coming together to
study.
 Suggested Measures to Operationalize Academic Ease Across Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction, Assessment and Learners’ Support
Areas Suggestions to Teachers/Learning Learners
Facilitators
Possible Suggested Actions
Issues/Concerns
CURRICULUM • Learning facilitators may directly contact Having difficulty • Immediately inform the teacher or learning
the teacher or if the concern is still not understanding certain facilitator
Difficulty addressed and the learner is in Key Stage concepts fond in any of the • Contact nearby classmate or study group
understanding 1, learning facilitators may access the following: mate to find out if the same concept or topic
concepts /topics in PRIME TV P.U.L.S.O. via: a) SLMs is challenging or not understood.
the learning resource https://tinyurl.com/DepEd-NCRPRIMETVPULS b) TV lessons for Key Stage • Seek subject teachers’ help during
O 1 consultation period.
• Teacher need to use DBOW in designing c) Printed or digitized
the WHLP, available for download via: learning resource
bit.ly/ncracadease

• Teachers and learning facilitators need to

explicitly teach young children to express
their challenges whenever they
experience difficulties in understanding
their lessons
• Teachers need to identify learners with no
companion in their homes as they can be
included in the report among those who
can be provided with Learning Support
Aides) by the LGU
 Suggested Measures to Operationalize Academic Ease Across Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction, Assessment and Learners’ Support
Areas Suggestions to Teachers/Learning
Facilitators
CURRICULUM TEACHERS NEED TO:
• Give extension of deadline for
Submission of unsubmitted outputs without
required output on necessarily deducting scores/grades
time • Determine if the learner with problem
on content lacked mastery in requisite
skills, if this is the case, then there is a
need for teachers to give activities that
will help the learners develop the
competency
• Give alternative output that can be
accomplished by the learner given the
emote learning set up
• Check if other learners are also having
difficulty meeting the deadline, this
means that the time given to complete
the task may not be enough or the task
is too difficult, in this case, this can be
altered with an easier one.
Learners
Possible Suggested Actions
Issues/Concerns
Unable to finish assigned • Immediately contact the teacher and
tasks/activity outputs inform the reason why the
thus: activity/task/output was not completed
• Failed to meet deadline • Seek help from the peer group
set by the teacher • Tell the teacher if more time is needed or
• Failed to submit the if elaboration on learning content is
required output necessary
• Seek for a schedule to consult the subject
area teacher so that help can be accessed
• Continue working on the output even it is
way past deadline and still submit those
to the teacher
• Accomplish the Self-Monitoring Tool
(Annex E of DO 31, s. 2020) report some
issues and concerns relative to the
learners’ home and personal contexts and
to guide the teachers in giving the
appropriate and timely feedback to the
learners
 Suggested Measures to Operationalize Academic Ease Across Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction, Assessment and Learners’ Support
Areas Suggestions to Teachers/Learning Learners
Facilitators
Possible Suggested Actions
Issues/Concerns
CURRICULUM LEARNING FACILITATORS MUST:
• Contact the subject area teacher to
Submission of communicate the learner’s challenge
required output on before its piles up
time • Give support to learner to complete
the required outputs by giving the
learner time to work on it. ( e.g. freeing
the learner from chores, monitor
learner’s activity that cause delay, and
communicate the same with the
teacher.
• Do not ignore when the learner fails to
submit his output on time
• Read and understand learners’ context
by reading their reported issues via the
Self-Monitoring tool.
 Suggested Measures to Operationalize Academic Ease Across Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction, Assessment and Learners’ Support
Areas Suggestions to Learners
Teachers/Learning Facilitators
Possible Suggested Actions
Issues/Concerns
CURRICULUM Some grade level teachers need to Having difficulty • Discuss with study group mates the
regularly meet to design activities to be understanding concept in challenging concept
Use of Weekly reflected in the WHLP that integrated any learning area. • Give feedback to teacher during
Home Learning related concepts across learnings consultation period.
Plan (WHLP) areas.

It is recommended for teachers to watch

the explainer video on DBOW and WHLP
that can be accessed via the link:
bit.ly/ncracadease

A WHLP exemplar is available for

download in the same link.

Learning facilitators must communicate

with the teacher any observed
challenge during consultation periods
only.
 Suggested Measures to Operationalize Academic Ease Across Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction, Assessment and Learners’ Support
Areas Suggestions to Learners
Teachers/Learning Possible Suggested Actions
Facilitators Issues/Concerns

INSTRUCTIONS Some grade level teachers
must reinforce related
Reinforcing concepts by regularly meeting
related together to discuss how these
concepts across concepts can be integrated
learning areas
Learning facilitators need to
understand what learners are
going through and
communicate to concerned
teacher.
Feeling stressed due to • Inform the teacher about
many one’s feeling/inform the
assignments/required learning facilitator
outputs to submit in • Talk to a nearby classmate
learning areas about feeling and study
together
• Take a brief break
• Do some non-academic
activities to lessen the
stress
• If belonging to a study
group, chat with friends
and exchange ideas, talk
about
 Suggested Measures to Operationalize Academic Ease Across Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction, Assessment and Learners’ Support
Areas Suggestions to Learners
Teachers/Learning Possible Suggested Actions
Facilitators Issues/Concerns

INSTRUCTIONS Teachers need to design Difficulty in • Raise this issue to the

different activities that grasping hard concerned teacher
Handling head cater to different types of concepts • Join study group or peer
concepts learners. introduced in the • Review the Learning
SLM or being material
discussed in the • Seek help to understand
synchronous difficult to understand
class. concepts
 Suggested Measures to Operationalize Academic Ease Across Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction, Assessment and Learners’ Support
Areas Suggestions to Learners
Teachers/Learning Possible Suggested Actions
Facilitators Issues/Concerns

ASSESSMENT Teachers need to create Wanting to improve • Develop self-assessment skill

more create more
Getting opportunities for learners to
Immediate practice enabling them to
Feedback develop target
competencies by:
• Explicitly teaching
learners to self-correct
• Explain to parents the
need to reinforce the use
of self-checks
• Explicitly teach learners
to assess peer’s work
using a rubric.
one’s own work/get using the Learning Activity
immediate Sheet (LAS)
feedback from • Use the rubrics and rate own
activities/outputs work
submitted • Practice rating
peer’s/classmate’s work by
exchanging outputs and use
the prescribed rubrics
• Be open to give and receive
feedback from peer.
 Suggested Measures to Operationalize Academic Ease Across Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction, Assessment and Learners’ Support
Areas Suggestions to Learners
Teachers/Learning Possible Suggested Actions
Facilitators Issues/Concerns

ASSESSMENT Teachers must give
remediation activities for
Meeting passing learners who fail to meet
score/grade passing score/grade or
those lagging behind
Teachers need to strategize
on how more advanced
learners can be tapped to
support their peers, giving
them the opportunity to
firm up their understanding
of concepts by assigning
them as “peer coaches”
Failed to meet • Be honest with the learning
passing score/grade facilitator and tell what
hindered in meeting the
passing score/grade
• Communicate with the
teacher challenges, why
failure happened?
• Attend remediation
class/period given by teacher
• Be open to work with a peer
 Suggested Measures to Operationalize Academic Ease Across Areas of Curriculum,
Instruction, Assessment and Learners’ Support
Areas Suggestions to Learners
Teachers/Learning Possible Suggested Actions
Facilitators Issues/Concerns

ASSESSMENT learner under remote

learning set-up as this to
Meeting passing give a more satisfactory
score/grade experience

Learning facilitation must

closely communicate with
the learning area teachers
and support the learner in
any way.
References:

MEMORANDUM OUIC-2020-307 entitled “Suggested Measures

to Foster “Academic Ease” During the Covid Pandemic”.
DepEd Order 29 s. 2021. “ School Calendar and Activities for
School Year 2021-2022”
MEMORANDUM DM-CI -2020-00162 “Suggested Strategies in
Implementing Distance Learning Delivery Modalities (DLDM)
for School Year 2020-2021”
DO 12 s.2020. “Adoption of the Basic Education Learning
Continuity Plan for School Year 2020-2021 in the Light of the
COVID -19 Health Emergency”
Regional Memorandum 344, “Regional Guidelines on the
provision of Text-Based Learning Resources for the Year 2021-
2022”
Result of Regional MELCs Audit and FGC on Academic Ease