Briones: Judgment on face-to-face classes up to the President Duterte

Department of Education Secretary Leonor Briones is firm to the decision of opening of classes for School Year 2020-2021 which is set on August 24 — with or without the conduct of face-to-face classes.

Secretary Briones, reiterated that the date of school opening cannot be scheduled beyond August.

As cited in Republic Act (RA) 7797, opening of classes should be between the first Monday of June to the last day of August.

“We cannot go beyond that because of the requirements of a law that is not yet amended or repealed as of now,” Briones explained.

Briones said that there is “no change” in the schedule of school opening because it has been approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), announced by DepEd and President Duterte.

“As of now, whether we will have face-to-face or no face-to-face, the date [of school opening] remains that it is still August 24,” Briones said. “We don’t want to go beyond the requirements of the law so it’s August 24 – with or without face-to-face,” she added.

If there will be changes in the coming weeks, Briones said that the decision will be coming from the President himself not from DepEd.

“Ang President kasi ang nag-declare na walang face-to-face, so siya ang mag-aaral ng sitwasyon at patuloy na binibigyan namin siya ng impormasyon na kailangan niya,” she explained.

“Kung ano man ang desisyon, siya ang gagawa nung decision na iyan but the August 24 is still there – with or without face-to-face”, Briones added.

Briones believes that the President is mindful that there are suggestions to allow face-to-face classes in low risk areas.

“The President, since he initiated that policy, will make the decision based on the conditions as of the time of opening of classes,” she added.