MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) has clarified that while it welcomed the Office of the Vice President (OVP) Community Learning Hubs project, it did not mean that limited in-person classes were allowed. In a statement on Tuesday, DepEd said that there were no partnerships for limited in-person classes — adding that their earlier statements distancing from OVP’s program were about a recent story about the hubs, which showed that the limited in-person classes were a shared initiative between OVP and DepEd. ADVERTISEMENTEarlier, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said that the department did not approve of OVP’s learning hubs because of the ban on face-to-face classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This, DepEd says now, is only about a Philippine Daily Inquirer story on Monday entitled “OVP partners with DepEd, others for limited in-person classes.”“The clarification we made that there was no partnership with the OVP for face-to-face classes is with reference to the [Philippine Daily] Inquirer story titled ‘OVP partners with DepEd, others for limited in-person classes,’” DepEd said. ADVERTISEMENTGutierrez clarified that the learning hubs — a project of OVP and its private sector partners — are not classrooms where students have to enter every day.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer November 24, 2020 12:50 UTC