Education dept pushes for remote enrolment in public schools

Students and their parents need not leave their homes to enrol in public schools in June, Education Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla has said.

Sevilla clarified that enrolment in public schools would be done remotely.

“What we want to happen is to conduct remote enrolment. This means that students from Grades 1 to 12 will be contacted by their previous advisers,” she said. Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said there would be no face-to-face enrolment in the first two weeks of June.

“There is no need for parents and their children to go to school for enrolment,” he stressed.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said enrolment would be voluntary and that she would respect parents’ decision not to enrol their children.

“What we want to tell them is that a vaccine is months away. But for the meantime, we are doing something to continue children’s learning,” she explained.

Briones added that the department agrees with President Rodrigo Duterte that the safety of students, teachers and staff should be given priority.

“There is no disagreement, there is no debate between the pronouncement of the president and that of the department because that is exactly the same. We will not allow face-to-face (classes),” she said.

Duterte has said it was useless to discuss class resumption if the safety of the students cannot be guaranteed.

Briones said education must continue through the use of flexible learning options such as through the Internet, radio and television, among others.