Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to give a passing grade to all students in his city amid the COVID-19 scare in the country.
In a radio interview, Tiangco said that he sees no problem in suspending the classes earlier, as there are only two to three weeks left for the current school year.
He argued that an early class suspension is better than risking the health of the student,s especially that the Philippines already confirmed local transmission of COVID-19.
“Ako ay nakiusap sa DepEd na kung puwede ipasa na lang lahat ng mga bata for this school year… para wala nang pasok for the rest of the year… Mas importante naman ho siguro ‘yung buhay ng mga bata kaysa ‘yung ituloy pa nila ‘yung two or three weeks ng pag-aaral,” Tiangco said.
He said that the DepEd could just ignore the performance of the students for the 4th quarter of the current school year and just compute the past quarters they completed to get their general average.
“May general average naman ‘yung mga bata as of this time, so baka naman pwe-pwedeng kung ano ‘yung general average nila, ‘yun na lang ang maging grado nila,” Tiangco stated.
“Ang gusto ho natin is ‘yung maging safe… doon tayo sa mas safe diba po? Alam niyo naiintindihan ko, importante [ang] aral, importante ‘yung grado, sa isang taon meron pa’ng pag-kakataon, eh,” he also said.
Tiangco is one of the first Mayors in the country to suspend the classes after the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed the first local transmission of COVID-19 in PH.
President Rodrigo Duterte also declared public health emergency as per the advice of the experts from the DOH.
DOH also said that they already raised the COD Red Sub-level 1 alert.
However, DOH Sec. Francisco Duque III said that it’s still not recommended for the LGUs to suspend their classes amid COVID-19 scare.
“That’s their own decision but as of today, we are on sub-level 1 of code red and that is not being recommended,” the health secretary said.