THE OPENING of classes for the school year 2020-2021 is not yet definite, according to Department of Education XI spokesperson Jenielito Atillo.
In a virtual presser with the Philippine Information Agency XI, he said the Department of Education has to recommend first to the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases and in turn to President Rodrigo Duterte-Carpio who will finally make the final decision on the holding of the opening of classes.
Atillo said the final date of the opening of classes will depend on the approval of the president.
“We are in the situation right now that the Department of Education cannot call the shots as a department, because the ongoing situation is that we really need to get the nod first of the IATF for them to official recommend to the president and for the president to hammer the decision. Only then we will know the opening of classes,” he said.
Atillo said while waiting for the decision, the Department of Education XI is crafting its education continuity plan to prepare all schools both public and private for the opening of classes.
He said it is to prepare the teachers and students in the event the classes start.
Atillo said the residents are indeed caught aback with the COVID-19 pandemic but the teachers and students are already to do things given that they are already doing a lot of things prior to the infection, like the alternative delivery mode, and other modalities to conduct classes despite the emergency situation.
He said that currently, a learning continuity plan is being crafted by the Department of Education being culled out from all the DepEd regional offices.
Atillo said Education Secretary Leonor Briones made the recommendation to the national IATF on the opening of classes midday today, and that the public will be appraise of the learning continuity plan designed by the department, if it is approved by the IATF as a recommendatory act to the president.
He said what is certain is that the learning process will still continue in “the new normal,” wherein a face-to-face mode is no longer applicable.
“COVID 19 is still around and the probability of a second wave is great, if we will not take heed of the call for safety,” Atillo said.
He said the Department of Education’s primary concern are the health and safety of the teachers and students and to continue the education despite the current situation.
Atillo said the government may shift to use all its broadcast facilities, until the learning continuity plan of the Department of Education is approved.
“We have to wait for the official confirmation and announcement coming from appropriate channels with respect to the opening of classes and to all the recommendations delivered today by the education sector through Education Secretary Leonor Briones to the IATF because this only the agency that can only bring in its recommendation to President Rodrigo Duterte who will act on it, by then it will be final and official,” he said. (By Joey Dalumpines)
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