PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has agreed to postpone the opening of basic education classes for school year 20202021 to Oct. 5, 2020.
The postponement covers both public and private schools.
However, private schools that have already resumed classes may continue, such as universities and colleges that offer basic education.
Department of Education (DepEd) Secretary Leonor Briones, in a press conference on Friday, Aug. 14, said her office received a memorandum from Malacan~ang about the postponement.
Briones said the President approved DepEd's recommendation to defer the class opening because students in the National Capital Region (Metro Manila) and Calabarzon are affected by the re-imposition of stringent quarantine restrictions.
“Last Aug. 6, I submitted to him (President Duterte) a policy analysis on the implications of the imposition of modified enhanced community quarantine or MECQ in Metro Manila and in the provinces of Cavite, Bulacan, Laguna and Rizal,” Briones said.
Cavite, Laguna and Rizal provinces form part of Calabarzon while Bulacan is in Central Luzon.
“The combined learner population of these two regions are very significant in terms of the entirety of our learner population,” she added, referring to NCR and Calabarzon.
She said Calabarzon alone has more than four million learners while NCR has more than two million.
They comprise more than a fourth of the 23 million K-to-12 (kindergarten to Grade 12) enrollees in both public and private schools for the incoming school year.
In lieu of face-to-face sessions, DepEd is preparing to implement three types of distance learning: modular, online, or TV/ radio-based instruction.
Calls to postpone classes have been made to buy time to prepare for these distance learning modalities.
Briones said the deferment is pursuant to Republic Act 11480, which gives the President the power to decide on the class opening during a calamity.
The Philippines is under a state of public health emergency and state of calamity due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Classes for basic education in the country were supposed to start on Aug. 24, but there were challenges during the dry runs held, particularly in areas under MECQ.
Areas under MECQ are directed to continue the orientation, dry run, and the delivery of learning resources to students.
Briones said they will also use the deferment to provide relief to logistical limitations faced by areas placed under MECQ, continue the upscaling of teachers, and fill in the remaining gaps of the school opening.
On Aug. 12, senators, during a Senate hearing on basic education, urged DepEd to postpone the opening of classes from August to October or even to a later date.
Teachers’ reaction
The militant Alliance of Concerned Teachers, in a statement, reiterated requisites for safe and quality education: Control the spread of the pandemic and address the economic crisis; ensure the safety of schools by filling shortages on facilities, personnel and equipment, and installing comprehensive health protection mechanisms; and provide all the needs of distance learning moconducting dalities.
Under distance learning, learners and teachers must have smartphones or laptop/desktop/ tablet computers.
In the absence of such gadgets, learning sessions will be conducted through television or radio.
“We would like to emphasize that once we open classes, there will be no face-to-face sessions and sessions will not be limited to online sessions alone. This is because we have adopted the policy of blended learning,” she said.
She said they are now finalizing arrangements for television programs, radio programs, and the “much favored” modular system using printed learning materials.
New gadget
For Cyril Bacalso, a mother of two, the postponement of classes is good to give teachers ample time to prepare.
However, had the announcement been made earlier, she said she wouldn't have bought yet a laptop computer for her children's online classes.
"Financial-wise, such budget could have been used for other important priorities and necessities of the family if the announcement was made earlier," she said.
Bacalso added as a parent, she believes it is crucial not to delay learning for very young children as it might result in a lack of interest to study.
Bacalso's children, in Grade 2 and Grade 7, are enrolled in a private university in Cebu City which opted to hold online classes and opened last Aug. 10.
DepEd 7 Director Salustiano Jimenez said they were set to meet with Briones for a management committee meeting on Friday.
He said a few private schools in Cebu and Siquijor had started distance learning sessions since June.
Only around 124,000 learners have enrolled in private schools across Central Visayas this year, or just 38 percent of the 320,000 enrollees in 2019.
Cebu City
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella welcomed the deferment of classes.
"It's going to be a new setup, a new dimension and a new method, so with the postponement of the opening of classes everybody can be prepared,” Labella said.
The postponement will give personnel of DepEd Cebu City more time to distribute the printed modules and disinfect schools.
Division Superintendent Rhea Mar Angtud also plans to use the two-month postponement to conduct another dry run and orient parents and students on the new platforms.
Meantime, Angtud said the DepEd will allow the City Government to continue to use public schools as barangay isolation centers.
DepEd Cebu City recorded more than 169,000 students have enrolled in public schools as of July 31.
Mandaue City
In Mandaue City, Mayor Jonas Cortes, through his executive secretary John Eddu Iban~ez, said he accepts the postponement as it will give schools more time to prepare.
The City also asked DepEd Central Visayas to extend their use of four schools as isolation centers.
These are Mandaue City Central School, Opao Elementary School, Paknaan Elementary School, and either Subangdaku Elementary School or Cabancalan Elementary School for the City's south.
Iban~ez said the City will use these schools as temporary isolation centers until two centers, still under construction, will be completed. (With WBS, JJL, KFD)