The Department of Education has temporarily halted field trips, educational tours, and other off-campus or out-school-activities due to the threat of the 2019 novel coronavirus in the country.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones, in the First Set of Policy Directives of the DepEd Task Force on nCoV as cited in DepEd Memorandum No. 15, Series of 2020, issued to all public and private elementary and secondary schools, said that all off-campus activities as defined in the DepEd Order No. 66, Series of 2017, or the Implementing Guidelines on the Conduct of Off-Campus Activities, are suspended.
Briones noted that the move is part of DepEd’s efforts to minimize the exposure risks associated with the 2019-nCoV ARD and as a support to the efforts of the government to contain the spread of the deadly virus.
Aside from issuing the first set of policy directives on nCoV, DepEd also created a Task Force nCoV to cooperate with the Department of Health for the implementation of its response to the virus, including decision for school suspensions, and to promulgate standard protocols in DepEd offices and schools.
It also expanded the DepEd Quick Response and Recovery Team which now includes the 2019 nCoV.
Meanwhile, DepEd said yesterday that the early registration for school year 2020-2021 is not included in the activities that were temporarily suspended due to the threat of the novel coronavirus.
The early registration in public elementary, junior, and senior high schools nationwide officially opened last Saturday and will continue until March 6. (Ina Hernando Malipot)