The Department of Education (DepEd) on Tuesday reiterated its support to the decision of President Duterte to recall the policy allowing 10 to 14 years old residing in Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) areas to go outside their houses.

DepEd reiterated this in a statement, noting that the said decision was made to protect the public - particularly the children - against COVID-19 and its reported variants.

Meanwhile, DepEd also clarified that “teachers will not handle actual vaccination procedures.” Rather, the agency noted that teachers “can help in the information campaign for the government’s vaccination program. ”

“So more on the educational aspect, they will not participate in medical procedures because that would really be malpractice,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said.

On the possible resumption of face-to-face learning, DepEd expressed its readiness to implement the pilot implementation of limited in-person classes should the health situation in the country improve.

Briones noted that the safety of students and teachers remains an utmost priority.

“We are monitoring the related to COVID and the decision of the President, it’s hard to determine now when face-to-face classes will resume because largely, as I said, the state of danger or threat that COVID still poses to our children and to our teachers,” she added.

As DepEd awaits for the go-signal to resume in-person classes, Briones assured that the department will continuously implement academic ease measures to “lessen the mental stress of learners at home.” 

The academic ease measures introduced by DepEd include the reconsideration of time allotment for the completion and submission of activities by the students and the expansion of mental health/socio-emotional well-being support to teachers, learners, and parents through group various wellness sessions.