As part of the Department of Education’s thrusts and directions toward improving governance particularly in strengthening its internal systems and processes, innovations in its information and communication systems are implemented that are aimed to:

• enhance existing communication channels in the Department making communication timely, reliable and accessible;
• provide its personnel a sense of distinct online identity and affiliation with the Department; and
• provide tools that will allow for teamwork among its employees in the planning, performance, and evaluation of tasks. Hence, promoting a culture of collaboration.

        In line with these, the Department of Education (DepEd) establishes the DepEd Email Service as one of the official means of communication for use by its permanent employees and authorized consultants, personnel, and staff. All permanent employees are enjoined to register for their DepEd email accounts and adopt it in its day-to-day official communications. The use of the DepEd Email Service is a privilege and is subject to acceptable use by all DepEd employees.

A. Roles and Responsibilities

• Super Administrators. The full system administrators shall be assigned by the Secretary. They shall have complete access to the deped.gov.ph control panel and all administrator actions.
• ICT Administrators. The Central Office, each regional office, and each division office shall assign an ICT administrator to be in charge of the administrative maintenance of users and groups in their respective area of responsibility.
• Personnel Officer. The Central Office, each regional office, each division office shall assign a Personnel or Administrative Officer who will serve as the authorized officer for creation and deactivation of accounts.
• Troubleshooting and other technical concerns relative to the service shall likewise be addressed by the Technical Service (TS), in coordination with other assigned employees of the Department.

B. Assignment

• All permanent employees of this Department shall be assigned a deped.gov.ph account which can be accessed through http://mail.google.com.
• Consultants and personnel under contract of service may be assigned their respective accounts upon the request of their immediate heads of the unit and subject to the discretion and approval of the super administrators. The requests shall be based on the need of the said individuals for official email accounts in the performance of their duties.
• Offices which need an email address will be assigned a distribution list, with its employees who need to communicate using the said address under it, upon the request of the head of unit and will be subjected to the discretion and approval of the super administrators.
  The regional or division ICT administrator shall be the officer responsible for the said registration kiosk.
• Registrants who provide information inconsistent with the DepEd database shall undergo manual verification.
• Starting April 1, 2013, all newly hired regular employees shall be given a deped.gov.ph account by the ICT administrator upon instruction of the personnel officer.
• Such account shall be created for the employee on the first day that the same is required to report for work. A basic orientation of this usage policy and other matters related to the deped.gov.ph service shall also be administered by the personnel officer.
• Individuals who are no longer connected with DepEd by reason of resignation, transfer of office, retirement, or other causes of termination or suspension of service, shall be prohibited from access to the deped.gov.ph service through account deletion. In every instance of effective separation from the DepEd, the Personnel Officer shall include the deactivation of accounts by the ICT administrator as part of the clearance process.
• When persons are suspended or are separated pending the accomplishment of clearances, or other analogous instances, the personnel officer shall inform the ICT administrator so that the latter can suspend email accounts or otherwise prevent unauthorized access to the same.
• Likewise, upon notice from the personnel officer, when the cause for account suspension has resolved or remedied, the ICT administrator shall restore the account access.

C. Guidelines on the Acceptable Use of DepEd Email Service

• These guidelines cover the use of a deped.gov.ph email account assigned to employees of DepEd.
• Where applicable, the substance of this policy shall also cover email communications by persons connected to the Department and acting on its behalf.
• Whenever an employee of DepEd is assigned a deped.gov.ph email account, the use of such account for all online official communications is highly encouraged.
• Considering that all communications through the deped.gov.ph email account are treated as official representations, exercise of utmost professional discretion is required specially when sending out to external parties.
• The content of all such communications shall meet the appropriate standard in terms of form (e.g. language, spelling, grammar, punctuation, presentation), as well as substance.
• Reasonable use of the deped.gov.ph service for personal electronic correspondence is acceptable. However, strict professional discretion is still expected to be employed at all times.
• It is recommended that personal emails are saved in a folder separate from work-related email messages.

D. Protection Against Liability

• Appropriate discretion shall be applied at all times in terms of representations, claims, and disclosures made through the deped.gov.ph email account.
• In the spirit of email risk awareness and to mitigate possible liability, the inclusion of the following disclaimer in the signature line of all communications sent through the service is automatically included in every email:

“This communication may contain confidential or privileged information, and is intended solely for the individual or entity to whom it is originally addressed. Any disclosure, copying, dissemination, or any action taken in reliance to it by others, other than the intended recipient, is strictly prohibited. The opinions, conclusions, and statements expressed in this message are those of the sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of theDepartment of Education. ”

E. Prohibited Use​

• The deped.gov.ph email account is a government email service obtained in the interest of public service. Transmission and storage of offensive, disruptive, discriminatory, pornographic, profane, abusive, libelous, derogatory, illegal, and otherwise similar material unbecoming of agents of the civil service are strictly prohibited.
• The email account shall not be used in connection with any commercial, religious, social, political, and other similar interests.
• Disclosing confidential and sensitive personal information is strictly prohibited, unless it is required by duty or assignment.
• Use of the account to access illegal content or to access content (e.g. copyrighted information) in a manner that violates the law is likewise stringently forbidden.
• The introduction, intentional or otherwise, of any form of computer virus or malware, may it be from an email attachment or external link to a file, into the network is also strictly prohibited.
• Each individual is responsible for any information or statement sent out from his or her own account, making him/her liable for violations stated in this policy.

F. Other Provisions

• DepEd shall exercise dominion over the deped.gov.ph account and over all data, material, and information received, transmitted, stored, or otherwise processed through the service. The privacy of every individual user shall be respected as a strict general policy.
• Supervision of accounts shall only be undertaken upon a finding of probable cause indicating a breach of the safe, proper, and reasonable use of the deped.gov.ph service or a violation of any law or other rules or regulations as possibly evidenced by contents processed through the deped.gov.ph service, as determined by the Executive Committee (ExeCom).
• The individual shall be informed that the account will be subjected for investigation and of the reason behind it.
• In the event that the prohibited acts stated in Section 2.d of this Policy Guidelines are violated, formal complaints may be lodged with the ICT administrator. This shall be done in coordination with the appropriate Division, Regional, Central DepEd legal officer against individual users whether they are still connected with DepEd or not, and upon a determination by the three super administrators that there is a probable cause to rely on the validity and veracity of the allegations contained therein.
• Any user found to be guilty of violating, intentional or otherwise, the policies of the deped.gov.ph email account service shall be subject to disciplinary action, without prejudice to such other civil, administrative, and penal remedies as the gravity of the violation may merit.
• The specific disciplinary action to be meted out shall be determined by the ExeCom member assigned as the ICT Chairperson, in consultation with the unit head of the person at fault.