MANILA — The Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday suspended classes in Metro Manila public schools from Jan. 15 to 22 to alleviate “the health burden caused by the surge of COVID-19 cases” in the region.

In a memorandum sent to the schools' division superintendents in the NCR, DepEd said classes will resume on Jan. 24.

During the health break meant to ease the physical and mental well-being of school personnel and learners, all synchronous and asynchronous classes must be put on hold, while submission of all academic requirements and other teaching-related activities should be moved to a later date.

The mid-year break scheduled on Jan. 31 to Feb. 5, meanwhile, “shall be utilized by the learners to comply with backlogs in learning outputs while teachers are expected to attend to their usual activities including in-service training and other learning-related undertakings.”

“The lost contact days shall be compensated by mechanisms such as independent study, remediation, enhancement activities and other related teaching-learning interactions,” DepEd said in the memo.

Private schools “may exercise their own discretion” on suspending classes.

Several local government units also suspended all academic activities in their jurisdictions.

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