The Department of Education (DepEd) announced Tuesday that the opening of classes would be on August 24, 2020, amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis.
DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones said they consulted different stakeholders and surveyed around 700,0000 respondents before coming up with the decision.
“Ang napili nating school opening date ay August 24,” Briones said in a televised Laging Handa public briefing.
(Our school opening date is August 24.)
Briones, however, clarified that this does not necessarily mean that students have to report to school physically. Classes may be conducted virtually in some areas, she said.
Opening of classes 2020
Senators earlier are seeking to postpone the school opening beyond August 2020 as the number of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the country continue to increase.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Sen. Joel Villanueva recently filed similar bills proposing to amend Republic Act No. 7977. Under this law, “the school year shall start on the first Monday of June but not later than the last day of August.”
Sotto filed Senate Bill No. 1438 on April 27, which aims to move the opening of classes in September or to any month President Rodrigo Duterte would determine.
“This bill…would give the Department of Education (DepEd) more time and opportunity to prepare and adopt measures for the ‘new normal’ of the education system while helping the government fight the COVID-19 outbreak,” Sotto explained.
Duterte earlier approved the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases’ recommendation to open the classes for the school year 2020-2021 to September.
The decision was based on a study that showed children and youth aged zero to 20 years old are the possible transmitters of COVID-19, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said.
Class suspension until December could slow virus spread
An analyst from the University of the Philippines, meanwhile said class suspension until December 2020, could significantly help the country contain the pandemic.
Professor Mahar Lagmay of the UP Resilience Institute said suspending classes until December can reduce interaction between young people, hence lowering the risk of spreading COVID-19.
According to Lagmay, researches showed that there is 56% physical interaction among the 0-19 age group, which are mostly students.
As of May 4, the country has 9,485 confirmed cases, 623 deaths, and 1,315 recoveries.