Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Z. Duterte brushed aside worries that Department Order (DO) 34, which prescribes the school calendar and activities for School Year 2022-2023 in line with the resumption of five days of in-person classes, may result to classroom shortages.
“Hindi po kami naglagay ng exact size ng class dahil iba-iba po ’yung situation ng lahat ng mga schools natin. There are no schools na pare-pareho sila exactly sa kanilang classrooms and sa kanilang teachers. [We did not put exact class size because we have different situations in every school. There are no schools that have the same number equal number of classrooms and teachers],” Duterte told the media, stressing the DO was also approved by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. during a recent Cabinet meeting.
Duterte also denied that the standard size per class would be 20.
“Wala po [No]. If it was found in our previous Department Order, ’yung [the] Department Order 34 natin, nakalagay na po doon na lahat ng inconsistent na mga issuance previous to this number 34 ay nire-reveal na po natin [our Department Order 34, it was stated there that all inconsistent issuances from previous to the present number DO 34, we are revealing it]. Ang nakalagay nalang doon [What was stated there] is that physical distancing shall be implemented whenever possible,” she added.
On the possibility of shortages of teachers when physical distancing would be implemented for the number of students will be limited, Duterte responded, “The reason why po na nilagay namin ’yung [we put that] physical distancing shall be implemented whenever possible is that isa po ’yun sa mga [that is one of our] considerations kasama na po ’yung hindi po natin gusto na dagdagan, idagdag ’yung burden ng additional classes sa ating mga schools dahil po sa distancing. [We don’t want to add to the burden of our schools because of additional classes in our schools because of distancing].”
“I suggest to all the schools — both public and private — to read Department
Order 34. Very specific po yung guidelines natin doon sa Covid-19 protocol. [Our guidelines for Covid-19 protocol is very clear there],” she stressed.
At the same time, Duterte reminded private schools that they are allowed to do a combination of in-person classes and blended modality, but only from August 22 until October 31.
Image credits: Manuel T. Cayon
