DEPUTY House Speaker Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. is calling for the postponement of the reopening of classes in all public and private schools until a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is developed and available in the country.
Gonzales said his call for the postponement is contained in Resolution No. 876, which the House has referred to its Defeat Covid-19 Committee co-chaired by Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano and Majority Leader Martin Romualdez.
He said “face-to-face classes will be a problem since it would be hard to require physical distancing in classrooms, especially in public schools, where a class is composed of no fewer than 40 students.”
The resolution seeks to express the collective sense of the House for the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, and Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases to suspend the resumption of classes “until and unless a vaccine against Covid-19 has been discovered and included in the Philippine national drug formulary.”
Gonzales, who represents Pampanga’s third district, said despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the DepEd has set the official opening of the incoming school year on August 24, 2020 until April 30, 2021.
He said even if the education department encourages distance learning through the Internet at the start of the school calendar, this is not possible in the provinces where telecommunication signals are weak.
Even in many highly urbanized cities and towns, Internet and mobile phone communication is not reliable, he said.
“Face-to-face classes would have to be conducted sooner than later if we want our children to learn. And here lies the problem, since it would be hard to require physical distancing in classrooms, especially in public schools, where a class is composed of no fewer than 40 students,” Gonzales stressed.
He invoked the constitutional provision mandating the state to protect the health of its citizens in seeking the postponement of the reopening of schools.
“With the growing Covid-19 threat which is still present and imminent to the safety of our citizens, especially our children, it is imperative that we take all precautions and preventive actions to protect our people from the disease,” he stressed.
Covered by his suspension proposal are classes in all schools, whether public or private, from pre-school to college, including vocational education and training.