MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education on Tuesday said they proposed three dates for the opening of the next school year for President Rodrigo Duterte’s consideration.
“We will release the final school calendar for School Year 2021-2022 once we get the final approval of the President. We are proposing that he choose among either August 23, 2021, September 6, 2021 or September 13, 2021,” it said in a statement.
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Under Republic Act 7797, the school year may start the first Monday of June but not later than the last day of August. But Duterte, in July 2020, signed RA 11480 allowing the president, upon the recommendation of the education secretary, to determine when schools may open if a state of emergency or calamity is in place.
Reumption of face-to-face classes pushed back
The education department also said it will continue to improve the delivery of education, currently through enhanced blending learning, in the coming months.
“While we remain optimistic to open schools when our situation improves, we are ready to fulfill our constitutional mandate in supporting our learners and teachers in any form or learning available,” it said.
This was after the president, in a public address Monday night, rejected DepEd’s proposal to hold pilot face-to-face classes.
Duterte cited the presence of the more contagious COVID-19 Delta variant and the need to vaccinate a majority of the population and said he “cannot gamble on the health of the children.”
DepEd said it will follow the president’s decision to push back the implementation of limited face-to-face classes in low-risk areas.
“Our utmost priority is the safety of our 27 million learners and more than 840,000 teachers and we will defer to the professional assessment of the Department of Health, the [Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases], and the wisdom of the President in ensuring their protection,” it added. — Kristine Joy Patag