Tarlac cancels classes beginning Mar. 16 due to COVID-19 scare

TARLAC CITY — Classes in all levels for both public and private schools have been suspended beginning on Monday (March 16) “until further notice,” to help prevent students from getting infected by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) , Tarlac Gov. Susan Yap announced on Saturday afternoon (Mar. 14).

Teachers should organize online sessions for their pupils or assign home tasks until government finds it prudent to resume classes, she said.

The suspension allows school to sanitize and disinfect their respective campuses.

Two state universities in Tarlac have began issuing lessons using available apps and web tools, although they have basic concerns regarding students who have no internet access.

Students of the Tarlac State University who have no internet will receive lessons or interact with teachers by text messaging, University President Myrna Mallari said on Saturday in a directive to the Administrative Council.

“If they do not have cellphones, we will deal with them later by giving them other things to do when classes resume. Please consider that this is a national emergency,” she said.

“Kanya kanyang diskarte po, since ang ibang faculty naman po ay hindi fan ng technology but hindi po namin sila pinepressure sa deadline ng mga activities na isend nila online. Kasi may mga students kaming hirap rin sa signal ng internet [We have our own ways of dealing with the suspension.]

Since older faculty members are not fans of technology, we don’t press them about deadlines for activities introduced online. That’s because we have students dealing with poor internet signals,” said Jayson Elenzano, Instructor 3 at the Tarlac Agricultural University, which has also tapped online media to continue teaching while classes are suspended.

Edited by JPV