DepEd to stop class suspension announcements

MANILA, Philippines - After creating confusion for sharing a fake class suspension notice last Wednesday, the Department of Education (DepEd) will no longer post on social media class suspension announcements from local government units.

DepEd said yesterday Secretary Leonor Briones issued the directive a day after the incident on Wednesday night, when the official Twitter account of the department announced the suspension of classes in Metro Manila due to Super Typhoon Lawin.

It later deleted the tweet, but not before the media and social media users picked it up and circulated the sham announcement online.

The incident created confusion, with DepEd later issuing an apology over what happened.

Briones said in a television interview on Thursday that the announcement was based on information posted by a fake account pretending to be that of the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration.

“In an effort to catch all announcements from different sources (government agencies, LGUs, schools, etc.), a tweet from a fake account of a trusted agency was quoted,” DepEd said in its apology.

“This apology comes with the appeal to the public to refrain from unverified or malicious #walangpasok announcements. Let us also be reminded of the policy that suspension of classes due to inclement weather is the discretion of the local government units (LGUs),” it added.

Based on the guidelines on class suspension, classes are automatically suspended in areas under public cyclone warning signals: pre-school on Signal No. 1, pre-school to senior high school on Signal No. 2 and all levels on Signal No. 3 and above.

DepEd and the Commission on Higher Education do not have the mandate to declare the suspension of classes in areas not under automatic suspensions, as the responsibility is with the LGU or the school officials.

But prior to Briones’ order, DepEd collates the declaration of class suspension as announced by the LGU in its social media accounts to help facilitate the dissemination of information.

In the case of Metro Manila, no single declaration may be made as it is composed of 17 different LGUs.

All of the 17 LGUs in Metro Manila ended up announcing on Wednesday night the suspension of Thursday’s classes in all levels.