Education Secretary Leonor Briones (DepEd/FILE PHOTO/MANILA BULLETIN) DepEd, in a statement issued Monday, May 10, maintained that efforts and initiatives to ensure that learners – as well as teachers – located in geographically isolated and disadvantaged and conflict-affected areas (GIDCA) will be able to adapt to the changes in the education sector. “I keep on saying that with or without the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease] pandemic, we are already moving towards technology,” Briones said. Last mile schools, according to DepEd, are those with less than four classrooms, usually makeshift and nonstandard ones; no electricity; no funds for repairs or new construction projects in the last four years; and a travel distance of more than one hour away from the center, accessible only through difficult terrain.