BAGUIO City Mayor Benjamin Magalong extended class suspension in the city until May 2020.
Magalong signed an executive order halting school until May 30 after meeting with representatives from the Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (Ched) and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda), which all agreed to heed the directives of the city.
The mayor ordered classes for all levels in public and private schools, as well as other institutions of learning suspended until the end of May, subject to guidelines and directives that may be released by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases or the Covid-19 Task Force.
Magalong likewise does not allow culmination rites for all schools for safety purposes.
The executive order also instructed school officials and administrators to immediately coordinate with the DepEd, Ched and Tesda for additional instructions regarding the guidelines for culmination of the year and other related matters.
Menzi Kuengan, Ched officer-in-charge and chief of education program specialist, said a meeting with the various school heads will ensue, as well as discussions on how to go about the school year for colleges and universities.
Kuengan said the examples set by Ateneo University will be taken into consideration as a template provided all will be amenable and if at all applicable in the region.
Annie Marie Caguioa from the Association of Private School Administrators (BC-APSA) said they support the extension of the ECQ for another month.
Caguioa, in a position paper sent to the City Hall, said there are senior high school and college students and teachers who are from the various provinces and from Manila who went home before the lockdown.
"We are afraid that a second wave of this pandemic might occur if we resume classes and businesses at the end of this month. Let us learn from Singapore who thought that Covid-19 in their country was under control. Despite the strict contact tracing, quarantining and travel restrictions, a second wave of infections from returning residents and local transmissions saw cases spike from 100 to 1,000 in one month," Caguioa added.
The BC-APSA said they have to prioritize the health, safety and protection of learners and community in general.
Ron Perez from the Federation of the Parents and Teachers Association, meanwhile, said regarding the concerns of parents and public schools administrators on the recognition/moving up/graduation ceremonies, these ceremonies will be set aside in deference to the national health emergency which is of primordial importance.
"No recognition/graduation/moving up ceremonies. This will run counter with the efforts on social distancing and mass gathering. We join the APSA's position paper," he added.