Gov’t anticipating face-to-face classes by Jan 2021, but Duterte still has final say

MANILA, Philippines — Although the education sector is preparing for the possible resumption of limited face-to-face classes by January 2021, the final decision remains to be with President Rodrigo Duterte.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque pointed this out Tuesday as he also revealed that the government targets to place all areas in the country under the most lenient general community quarantine or MGCQ by the first quarter of next year.

Classes resumed October 5 nationwide with schools utilizing distance learning modality— a combination of online and modular learning—as campuses stay closed and physical classes remain suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Patuloy naman po ang paghahanda diyan bagamat ang desisyon po ay talagang magiging desisyon pa rin ni Presidente,” Roque said in a televised Palace press briefing.

(Preparations are still ongoing although the decision will still be up to the President.)

But he noted that resuming in-person classes would depend on the prevalence of the new coronavirus in different localities.

“Titignan po natin kung anong magiging developments at ang DepEd (Department of Education) naman po ay patuloy ang paghahanda. Pero tignan po natin kung ano ang actual condition pagdating po ng prevalence ng coronavirus sa iba’t-ibang parte ng Pilipinas,” the Palace official said.

(We will monitor the developments and DepEd will continue to prepare. But let’s see what’s the actual condition when it comes to the prevalence of coronavirus in different parts of the Philippines.)

As of Monday, November 2, there are 385,400 confirmed cases of COVID-19 nationwide, but only 29,301 or 7.6% are considered active cases or those who are still undergoing treatment. Of the tally, 348,830 have recovered while 7,269 have died.

KGA

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