President Duterte has backtracked on his earlier remarks about being open on resuming face to face classes in coronavirus low-risk areas, going back to his initial stance that there will be no face to face classes when the schools reopen on August 24th.
However, the president was open to the idea that face to face classes can resume in January. President Duterte said that resumption of face to face classes in January was based on the assumption that a vaccine will have been found by that time. Duterte also expressed his worry that, when a vaccine is finally found, there will be a global scramble for the drug, which may result in the Philippines being unable to acquire the medication immediately.
Face to face classes hiccups
Duterte also said that, once the vaccine is discovered, he had talked with China to allow him to gain access to the vaccine for his country. He also indicated that should there be issues with affordability and availability of the vaccine, they had talked on the Philippines, giving a high priority for the vaccine distribution and also getting credit for purchasing the drugs.
Duterte continued by saying that his administration was focused on ensuring the safety of everyone, including teachers and students, adding that life lost could not be recovered, but education and time lost in lockdown could always be compensated.
In the meantime, the President said that learning would continue through modular and online learning. He indicated that his government was working hard to ensure that all students had access to resources required for learning when the schools finally reopen.
School reopening in the Philippines has become a contentious issue in the last few months, with teachers and student groups calling on the government to push the August 24th school reopening until when the virus will be fully contained. There has also been resistance to online learning, with many parents and teachers citing a lack of access to resources required for these classes.
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