BY Noel Talacay
THE Department of Education (DepEd) has given President Duterte three dates — August 23, September 6, and September 13 — from which to choose the opening of the next school year.
DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones said the agency will “release the final school calendar for School Year 2021-2022 once we get the final approval of the President.”
Briones reiterated that DepEd will follow the decision of the President to postpone the implementation of limited face-to-face classes even in low-risk areas due to numerous variants of COVID-19 in the country.
Last Tuesday, Duterte rejected anew the proposed resumption of face-to-face classes amid the threat of the more infectious Delta variant.
“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 (DOH), the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF), and the wisdom of the President in ensuring their protection,” Briones said.
She said the DepEd will continue to prepare and improve the delivery of quality education no matter what the circumstances in the coming months.
“While we remain optimistic to opening schools when our situation improves, we are ready to fulfill our constitutional mandate in supporting our learners and teachers in any form of learning available,” she said.
