DepEd activates Oplan Balik Eskwela today

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Education (DepEd) will activate today their Oplan Balik Eskwela (OBE) Information and Action Center (IAC) to ensure a smooth and organized school opening in public schools on June 4.

The DepEd’s OBE-IAC will provide students and their parents all over the country hotline numbers, landline as well as textlines, where they can make inquiries as well as report complaints and concerns.

The OBE-IAC will operate until June 8, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, including Saturdays and Sundays, at the DepEd Central Office.

The OBE-IAC will also serve as information and complaints processing and routing mechanism for the opening of classes.

“Oplan Balik Eskwela is one of the flagship projects of DepEd, and we are tapping all our department’s offices as well as our field offices to actively participate in this project. We have to ensure that all is set for the school opening on June 4,” Education Secretary Armin Luistro said.

Luistro said that regional directors and schools division superintendents were also “empowered” to form their own Local Information and Action Center (LIAC) not only to oversee local concerns, which will be coordinated to the central office, but also to encourage parents and communities to send their children to school.

Command centers will set up hotlines to receive calls, text and fax messages, and e-mails on complaints, requests and suggestions from parents, students and other concerned citizens. Help desks will also be set up to accommodate walk-in concerns.

Requests for information or queries may be directed to the OBE-IAC at (02) 636-8641 or e-mail to [email protected].

The DepEd expects more than 21 million school children to troop to public schools on June 4.