School year 2020-2021 for public schools was scheduled to open one week from today, on Monday, August 24. It has now been moved 35 days to Monday, October 5, by President Duterte on recommendation of the Department of Education (DepEd).
Before the presidential decision, the DepEd had been ready for the August 24 opening. It had already been postponed from the annual June opening because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the DepEd had drawn up a blended learning system, a mixture of Internet-based sessions, television and radio programs, and printed modules.
Simulations of the new system were conducted in 500 schools. “There were problems but these were resolved,” Secretary Leonor Briones said after the dry run in the 500 schools. She said any further delay in the start of the school year may affect the students’ interest in learning.
There were many officials who did not share her optimism. A Senate hearing was informed that as of last Wednesday, 82 of 130 school divisions in the country had completed printing the modules needed for the first quarter of the school year. With nearly 50 schools still without the modules, many teachers complained they had not received their modules, which they need to study before they can use them with their students. And they have to go house to house to deliver them in some regions.
Rep. France Castro of the party-list Alliance of Concerned Teachers said that with so many modules still to be printed and distributed, the Department of Education may not be ready for the 21.5 million students on August 24. Quezon City Rep. Alfred Vargas of the House Committee on Basic Education said many schools nationwide are still unprepared for distance learning.
Gov. Dakila Carlo Cua of Quirino, president of the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines, urged the DepEd to listen to the concerns of teachers about their health, the logistics of bringing the modules to the households and then collecting them later for processing. In the planned blended learning system, he added, some students may get infected with COVID-19.
Secretary Briones said the department decided to recommend a further postponement of the opening of classes when Metro Manila and Region IV-A were reverted to Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) a week ago. The renewed restrictions affected the DepEd’s own planning.
The President quickly approved the recommendation to further postpone the opening of classes. Since the beginning, he has always said there can be no face-to-face classes while there is yet no vaccine for COVID-19. With a vaccine still unlikely until about December, the postponement to October 5 may not be the final decision. It may yet be moved to January, 2020.