December 29, 2021 – The Department of Education (DepEd) has reached 18 million school-aged viewers in its official TV-based instruction platform DepEd TV, according to a recent analysis report.

“We are thankful to our partners and stakeholders who are helping us to reach the majority of our learners, especially in the remote area. This survey on DepEd TV shows that millions of Filipino learners have continued with their education amid the threats of the pandemic,” Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones said.

In the Kantar report released by the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation (IBC-13), the majority of 18 million viewers of DepEd TV are from kids 2 to 12 years old. There is also an exponential increase in viewership across audiences in all areas across the country. The same pattern was observed across all areas regardless of whether it was urban or rural or whether the audience was in Luzon, Visayas, or Mindanao.

In IBC-13, most viewers of DepEd TV are digital households, especially in the rural areas of the country where modular distance learning and TV-based instruction are some of the primary learning deliveries.

In line with this, the monthly reach of DepEd TV increased to 60% in the 12 months beginning October 2020, over the same period in October 2019.

“With these new findings, the evidence of the success of the program is clear and further reinforces the proposal for DepEd TV to become a long-term strategy of the Department, to strengthen the resiliency of the education system beyond the COVID-19 pandemic,” Undersecretary for Administration Alain Del Pascua noted.

Meanwhile, data also shows that viewership in IBC-13 grew at least 1,000% during the hours that DepEd TV started airing based on data from the same period in 2020 and 2019 when DepEd TV was not yet being broadcast.

“Rest assured that DepEd TV will continue developing programs that are aligned to the Most Essential Learning Competencies so that our teachers and learners will have more entertaining and educational resources,” Usec. Pascua added.

In addition, DepEd through the Office of the Undersecretary for Administration (OUA) and Information and Communications Technology Service (ICTS) is planning to launch the DepEd TV History Channel to reinforce historical awareness of learners, teachers, and the public.

DepEd TV is the Department’s television-based learning delivery that is broadcasted through the internet and TV stations across the country. The state-owned broadcast network, IBC-13 started airing DepEd TV episodes last October 5, 2020.

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