Duterte Cancel Face-to-Face Classes on January 2021

Here’s the statement of President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday, 26 December 2020

In his meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and infectious diseases experts, Duterte said he could not put the lives of learners at risk.

 

“I have allowed the face-to-face classes as pilot projects all over the country,” he said. “I’m calling back the order and I will not allow face-to-face classes of children until we are through with this. We have to, I said, we have to know the nature of the germ that we are confronting. Wala pa tayong alam (We know nothing yet). I cannot take the risk of allowing the children.”

President Duterte recently approved to conduct face-to-face classes this coming January 2021 in low risk areas for the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) but due to the new strain of Covid-19 which was allegedly more infectious, has been detected in the United Kingdom (UK) and has already been reported in other neighboring countries like Malaysia.

He immediately called a meeting and directed the Department of Education (DepEd) to cancel his previous approval for the resumption of face-to-face classes.

During the meeting, Duterte admitted that it would be a “disaster,” should he allow the planned resumption of face-to-face classes to push through in January next year.