Classes may still be suspended during bad weather or extreme cases in blended learning - DepEd

On Monday, the Department of Education (DepEd) said that while students are not physically present at schools to attend their lessons in this school year, class suspensions might still be declared when there is bad weather or during extreme cases.

Photo credit: canr.msu.edu

There's still a possibility that classes maybe suspended even if the education system this school year is implementing distance or blended learning because of Covid-19 pandemic. That is according to DepEd Undersecretary for Curriculum and Instruction Diosdado San Antonio, during the “Handang Isip, Handa Bukas.” 

San Antonio explained that when it comes to extreme cases such as strong tropical storm, the local government units (LGUs) are the ones that can declare suspension of classes.

Personally, I think there should be no classes on the day of the typhoon,

San Antonio said.

On account of heavy rains or if there’s a blackout, holding classes might not be applicable, 

he added. 

San Antonio said that since learning will be home-based due to the current situation, the number of days that classes might be shorter compared to when it was face-to-face learning.

Cancellation or suspension of classes is no longer under the jurisdiction of DepEd. Local executives have the authority to declare class suspension based on the situation in their areas of responsibility, that is based from Executive Order No. 66, s. 2012 signed by former President Benigno Aquino III.

However, respective school division offices also have the discretion to suspend classes if needed as long as they closely coordinate with local disaster units and respective DepEd regional offices. 

DepEd has been reminding the public that they “no longer need to wait for DepEd’s announcement on class suspension.” Pursuant to EO No. 66, s. 2012, “localized cancellation or suspension of classes and work in government offices may be implemented by local chief executives, as chairmen of the Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (LDRRMC) concerned, in coordination with PAGASA and the NDRRMC, specifically in flood-prone or high risk areas” in the absence of typhoon signal warnings.

DepEd reiterated that the rules on automatic suspension of classes remain the same: 

• Storm Signal No. 1 suspends classes in kindergarten;
• Signal No. 2 suspends classes in kindergarten, elementary, and high school; and
• Signal No. 3 suspends classes from kindergarten to college – including graduate schools and government offices

Based on the tentative school calendar, the first day of classes will be on Oct. 5 and the last day of classes for this school year is on June 16, 2021. Christmas vacation for this school year is also scheduled to start on December 20, 2020 and the classes will resume on January 3, 2021. As mandated and required by existing laws, DepEd said that there will be a total of 200 school days for SY 2020-2021.

Meanwhile, as of September 14, 2020, the total number of enrollees for SY 2020-2021 has reached 24,448,014 nationwide (88.03% of SY 2019-2020) for Kindergarten to Grade 12, including ALS and non-graded learners with disabilities.