Is There No Parent at the DepEd?

As early as 5am this morning, my husband and I were already tuned in to AM radio. We were listening for any announcement about the suspension of classes in Metro Manila as it had been raining hard since 2am.

What we heard was some official from the DepEd or the Department of Education saying that he left it to the discretion of the parents and the schools on whether to suspend classes or not. The radio show host also repeatedly announced: "May pasok po." (There are classes today.)

While I am always looking out for the safety of my kids, I am also a parent who ensures that they do not miss a single day at school if it can be avoided. My son had his quarterly exams scheduled today so no amount of "discretion" on my part would have led me to stop him from going to school today.

So it was off to school for my 5-year old daughter and my 10-year old son, in the rain. Their school buses picked them up.

At 7am, now, the DepEd makes a late announcement that classes are suspended for grade school and high school. Text messages went back and forth in a flurry. My brother texted in reply to my text that classes had been suspended: "Great! Nasa katpunan flyover trfc jam na kami!" Another parent texted: "What a pity. My daughter is already in school." Upon arriving here at our house, my brother lamented: "Kanina pa akong umaga nagtatanong..." (I had been asking since this morning...)

Oh well. Can anyone tell us who will educate the DepEd? I don't know why the DepEd is so shy about suspending classes early enough when the rains are heavy (even when there is no typhoon signal) as all it takes is a little common sense. All they need is to ask themselves, "Would I feel safe letting my kids go to school in this rain?"

They ask themselves that important question and they can save us parents all this hassle and stress.