MANILA - Students in some parts of the country might get their lessons through television and radio next school year if travel in their area remains restricted to stem COVID-19 cases, the Department of Education said Monday.
The opening of school year 2020-2021 "does not mean necessarily that students will be coming to school", said DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan.
"Kundi, malamang ay multi-modal ito dahil base sa mga forecast at projections na nakikita natin, itong full containment ng COVID-19 ay hindi magiging madali globally," he told DZMM.
(Instead, this will likely be multi-modal because based on the forecasts and projections we are seeing, the full containment of COVID-19 won't be easy globally.)
"Sa mga lugar na hindi posible ang classroom-based instruction, tinitingnan natin itong ICT (information and communication technology) platforms saka ang telebisyon, radyo," he added.
(In areas where classroom-based instruction is not possible, we are looking at ICT platforms, as well as television and radio.)
The agency "within the week" will announce the schedule of the opening of the school year, which typically starts in June, said Malaluan.
The DepEd will also present to an inter-agency task force on COVID in the first week of May the results of a survey on the preferred teaching platform of students and schools, he said.
Luzon, home to about half of the country's 100 million people, is on lockdown until April 30 to slow the spread of COVID-19.
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