After rough pandemic run, DepEd TV revived with new partners

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November 6, 2025 | 6:27pm

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education has revived DepEd TV, its flagship educational broadcast platform launched during the pandemic, under a new partnership with the Knowledge Channel Foundation Inc. (KCFI) and Solar Pictures, Inc.
 
The program — created to help students keep learning despite being locked out of classrooms in 2020 — had at one point gone dormant after production halted due to internal pay disputes. Its final broadcast was in 2022, the same year DepEd ordered a return to face-to-face classes.

The department is bringing the program back this time around to keep students learning despite repeated and consecutive climate- and weather-related disruptions, according to a statement on Thursday, November 6.

Under a memorandum of agreement signed Thursday, DepEd, KCFI and Solar Pictures committed to pursuing “21st-century learning delivery” and integrating media into classroom instruction. 

KCFI will supply educational content aligned with DepEd’s curriculum standards, while Solar Pictures will provide a dedicated digital terrestrial TV channel for DepEd TV programming, the DepEd statement read.

Education Secretary Sonny Angara said the partnership is aimed at making education systems more adaptive, particularly as typhoons and earthquakes continue to disrupt classes across the country. 

“We have communities where learners study in temporary shelters and teachers persevere despite losing their classrooms due to earthquakes or typhoons,” Angara said at the signing. “These are the realities of our new normal. It is difficult, but deeply reassuring to know that partners like you continue to stand with us in keeping education going.” 

Angara believes the department’s experience in recent years — from the pandemic lockdowns to climate-related school closures — has made clear that learning continuity “cannot depend on in-person classes alone," he said as quoted in the DepEd statement.

Angara said the revamped DepEd TV would complement ongoing efforts under the Alternative Delivery Modes (ADM) and Academic Recovery and Accessible Learning (ARAL) programs, which aim to reach students who have fallen behind or lack access to digital tools. 

DepEd TV first aired in 2020 through a private production company, Ei2Tech, which worked with hundreds of media professionals to produce televised lessons across grade levels. The project was initially seen as a breakthrough in remote learning, with a DepEd survey showing that 1.3 million parents preferred TV instruction for their children over other distance learning methods.

But the production later ran into difficulties when workers hired by Ei2Tech reported unpaid fees. DepEd at the time acknowledged delays in payment processing but said the cases involved only a small portion of contractors.

KCFI President Rina Lopez said the foundation’s participation builds on its 26-year history of providing curriculum-based video lessons for learners nationwide.

“From early childhood to K–12 and ALS, we remain dedicated to delivering engaging, culturally grounded, and gender-sensitive lessons that make learning stick—supported by data, feedback, and continuous improvement,” Lopez said.

Solar Pictures President and CEO Wilson Y. Tieng said his company’s role would focus on ensuring reach and accessibility.

“We look forward to this journey together and to witnessing the impact this collaboration will have on the lives of millions of Filipino students,” Tieng said.

DepEd noted that the arrangement is non-exclusive, which it said will allow the department to continue working with other content providers capable of producing high-quality educational materials consistent with its curriculum.