The Palace informs that President Rodrigo Roa Duterte approved during tonight’s Cabinet meeting, December 14, 2020, the presentation of the Department of Education (DepEd) to conduct pilot implementation or dry run of face-to-face classes in select schools within areas with low COVID-risk for the whole month of January 2021.
The DepEd shall coordinate with the COVID-19 National Task Force (NTF) for the monitoring of the conduct of the pilot implementation. The pilot shall be done under strict health and safety measures, and where there is commitment for shared responsibility among DepEd, local government units and parents.
We need to emphasize that face-to-face classes in schools where this may be allowed will not be compulsory, but rather voluntary on the part of the learner / parents. Having said this, a parent’s permit needs to be submitted for the student to participate in face-to-face classes.