IATF to make the call on suspending face-to-face classes — DepEd
MANILA, Philippines — It is up to the government's COVID-19 interagency task force to make the decision on suspending face-to-face classes depending on the situation in areas where the schools are located, an official from the Department of Education (DepEd) said on Tuesday.
The agency on Tuesday announced the incoming school year will begin on August 22, 2023. This will take effect regardless of any COVID-19 alert level imposed by the Health department and Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID).
Based on the order's implementing guidelines, all public and private schools, except those providing alternative delivery modes, are required resume face-to-face classes for five days a week by November 2, 2022.
DepEd Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III said that the mandatory in-person learning is a "general rule" that they will follow, but added they will leave it to the IATF to make the call on suspending these classes in case there is a surge in COVID-19 infections.
"DepEd will give in and follow if the IATF MEID would decide that the certain local government unit will lockdown or would recommend or approve that certain classes in a specific region or local government unit would go back to this distance learning so we'll look at it on a case to case basis," he told reporters in a mix of English and Tagalog during a virtual briefing on Tuesday.
According to DepEd Order No. 34's guidelines, only schools providing alternative delivery modes can implement distance and blended learning beyond November 2.
Last week, Teachers' Dignity Coalition (TDC) — a federation of public school teachers nationwide — backed the conduct of full face-to-face classes, but stressed the need to ensure that both learners and teachers are safe.
In a statement, TDC national chairperson Benjo Basas said that the education sector is in need of more classrooms and more teachers in the post-pandemic setting.
Physical distancing
On Tuesday, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said that schools must adhere to the three basic COVID-19 protocols once they start holding in-person classes.
"Dito sa face-to-face learning, kailangan talaga may mga sapat na bilang lamang, tamang bilang lang ng mga estudyante sa bawat classroom para makapag observe pa rin ng physical distancing," she told reporters in a virtual interview.
(When conducting face-to-face learning, we need just the right number of students in each classrooms so that they can observe physical distancing.)
"Kailangan maraming water facilities para pwede ipagpatuloy ang paglilinis ng kamay [at] kailangan may suplay ng mga mask.," she added.
(There must be many water facilities for the washing of hands, and we need a supply of masks.)
Hontiveros set to chair the Senate Committee for Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality in the coming Congress.
Duterte's priorities
Vice President Sara Duterte, who concurrently leads the DepEd, will be focusing more on improving the quality of basic education, according to Undersecretary Densing.
"It's very clear to her that the major investment should be ensuring that our learners improve in their standards. Quality education is key and part of this is really to also to improve the teaching standards or investing in the training and upgrading the standards of our teaching personnel, specifically our teachers," he said during the briefing on Tuesday.
RELATED: DepEd urged to prioritize better literacy, numeracy in early school years
He said that they are asking for a budget of P800 billion for their programs next year.
The DepEd, the largest department in the Philippine government, historically gets the highest budget from Congress.
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