MITCH M. LIPA
The opening of School Year 2021-2022 is tentatively set on August 23, Romeo Sison, chief education supervisor of the Negros Occidental Schools Division Office, said.
Sison said the schedule was announced by the DepEd central office last week but the date will still be finalized before the department issues a memorandum.
SY 2020-2021 is still ongoing, with schools now on third grading period. Classes will end on July 10.
The DepEd Negros Occidental Division is still waiting for guidelines for graduation, but there is a possibility that, similar to last school year, the ceremonies will be done online, or the certificates of graduation will just be distributed to the students without a graduation program because of the pandemic, Sison added.
There are private schools that are now holding graduation exercises since they opened their school year ahead of the public schools.
Sison said the Office of the Schools Division Superintendent is facilitating the requests of private schools that want to have face to face graduation exercises. This is on condition that health protocols will be strictly complied with, in terms of the number of attendees and the duration of the graduation program.
Sison clarified that their office will only facilitate the requests since the DepEd Regional Office based in Iloilo is still the approving authority.
He said the next school year will still be a mix of online classes and modules as the vaccination rollout is still ongoing.
The teachers belong to the priority A-5 category, and the students in the latter part of the priority list.
Sison, who is also the head of the School Governance and Operations Division, said that there are 499 elementary schools and 103 high schools, including the Negros Occidental High School in Bacolod City that has the most number of students, under the supervision of the Provincial Schools Division Superintendent. – MML
