MANILA, Philippines — Several proposed dates will be submitted to President Duterte on the start of the next school year in the elementary and high school levels, the Department of Education (DepEd) said yesterday.
“The first option (that we will present) is the one that was already reported, the Aug. 23 (opening of classes), and we have other dates that the Secretary will present to the President,” DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said in Filipino at the Laging Handa briefing.
Sevilla did not reveal the specific details, but said these are within the provisions of the law, in an apparent reference to Republic Act 11480 signed by Duterte last year.
The new law still sets the start of the school year between the first Monday of June and the last day of August, but allows the President – upon the recommendation of the DepEd secretary – to schedule it on a later date in the event of a declaration of a state of emergency or state of calamity.
It was the same law used last year when the President decided to move the opening of the current school year to Oct. 5, 2020 due to the pandemic.
Like the opening of classes, the return of face-to-face learning would be decided by the President along with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), Sevilla said.
Earlier, Education Secretary Leonor Briones expressed hope that Duterte would soon allow the resumption of limited face-to-face classes in low-risk areas.
For now, Sevilla said the DepEd is urging its personnel to get themselves vaccinated as they are all priority listed as A4 category or essential workers.
DepEd data showed that there are almost one million personnel within the agency, including more than 862,000 public school teachers.
Last week, it launched the Vacc2School campaign aimed at informing, educating and engaging DepEd’s stakeholders to promote vaccination and other related policies to mitigate COVID-19.
“Our appeal,” Brones said recently, “is that we will be dealing with the children; we will be protecting the children; and perhaps, our teacher will consider it as part of the responsibility to protect the lives of those who are entrusted to us.”
‘Catholic vote?’
Meanwhile, the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines-National Capital Region (CEAP-NCR) is encouraging all Catholic school personnel and qualified senior high school students to register as voters for the 2022 national elections.
The reminder to join the ongoing Commission on Elections (Comelec) registration was contained in a one-page letter issued by the CEAP-NCR, saying it is their “God-given duty and right to vote.”
“All of us may be able to select the candidates that best fit the duties required on governing the Catholic faithful,” said CEAP-NCR regional trustee Fr. Nolan Que, PhD, in the letter.
“The ballot is sacred because it guarantees that Catholics, who are conscious of their accountability to God, vote to safeguard God’s will on who is best to lead the country,” he added.
The Comelec resumed voter registration in Metro Manila last May 17, after the Palace eased the quarantine classification in the NCR Plus to general community quarantine. – Evelyn Macairan