DepEd wants classes to resume

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Education authorities want to see classes resume even if the schools are used as temporary shelters for flood-affected families.

Department of Education director for the National Capital Region, Luz Almeda said evacuees will be asked to move out of the classrooms to open spaces in the campus during the day to make way for the students.

“Yes we’ll resume classes tomorrow (Thursday) even if we still have evacuees. The evacuees can transfer to open spaces, they can go to the covered court. They can stay even if there are classes,” Almeda said in a phone interview.

Some evacuees also return to their homes during the day and only stay the night in the evacuation centers, Almeda added.

Some mayors of heavily-affected cities and municipalities in Metro Manila however have decided to continue to suspend classes on Thursday to let the public recover from the flooding.

Almeda, who went around to check on some of the public schools that were opened to evacuees, said they have yet to assess the flood damage on public schools in Metro Manila.

“We have not assessed the flood damage to our schools because we’re still busy accommodating evacuees. But it appears no schools were hardly hit,” she said.

DepEd said extra school days may not be needed yet to make up for the class suspensions since the 200-day school calendar includes 20 days as buffer for class disruptions.

“There may still be enough buffer days at this time of the school year so as not to require make up classes following the two days lost this week,” DepEd said in a statement.

DepEd requires a minimum 180 school days for the entire academic year.

Related story:

List of class suspensions for Thursday and Friday