THE Department of Education (DepEd), along with its external partners, reiterated the agency’s commitment to defend children’s rights and education, especially in light of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic as well as in post-pandemic time.
Education chief Leonor Briones reaffirmed her department’s determination to embrace an education system based on rights in the field of education through the establishment of the Child Rights in Education Desk and the Child Protection Unit.
The creation of these units is to help all employees and other stakeholders of DepEd be positive and respect, safeguard and uphold children’s rights in the context of fundamental education.
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“Our efforts and reflections, our initiatives, and the hard work we do focus on children. The outbreak has taught us to form more partnerships and to be unstoppable in our efforts to protect our children and fight for the rights of children,” Briones said.
It will also promote the three dimensions to ensure that quality education is provided for students – accessibility education, the right to high-quality learning, and the rights of children to be respected within the classroom.
“These three aspects are interdependent and essential. The right-based approach to education requires that the wide range of rights of a child within these three dimensions within the context of education in the basic sense are recognized, protected, and fully embraced by the responsible person, which includes DepEd,” Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Atty. Josephine Maribojoc explained.
The newly-established units will help to advocate for and strengthen children’s rights in their education to establish and integrate the rights of children into the work and mandate of the DepEd.
United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) Philippines Representative Oyunsaikhan Dendevnorov said that they would keep working with DepEd to ensure that children’s rights are protected despite the difficulties caused by the pandemic.
Every kid has the proper education. Through our close collaboration and close cooperation in conjunction with the Department of Education and partners, Unicef helps build teachers their skills, design educational materials, and make mamakerograms available that guarantee their children’s health regardless of whether they reside. Together we can ensure children’s health. Every child is the priority, particularly when in-person schools are beginning in certain regions,” he said.
Save the Children Chief Executive Officer Alberto Muyot also expressed support for DepEd in providing education to all students regardless of gender, race, religious belief, location, disability, or social status.
Stairway Foundation Inc. Executive Director Lars Jorgensen pointed out that creating new units within DepEd will play a key role in implementing the framework based on rights in education and ensuring children’s rights are protected in the face of the Covid-19 disease.
“I would like to felicitate the Department of Education on the creation and the establishment of both the Child Rights in Education Desk and the Child Protection Unit. These initiatives will increase and strengthen the rights of children,” he added.
