MANILA – Three Western Visayas-based schools – two from Antique and one from Aklan – were approved to pilot face-to-face classes beginning this Nov. 15.
The Department of Education (DepEd) gave the go signal for the Laserna Integrated School in Nabas, Aklan; and Igsoro Elementary School School (Bugasong) and Mayabay Elementary School (Barbaza) in Antique. They were among the 59 schools initially approved for the pilot run.
The Department of Health (DOH) made the recommendation on the 59 schools, which were chosen from 638 applicants.
“Ang mga napiling paaralan ay masusing sinuri ng DOH Epidemiology Bureau at kinilalang minimal o low risk, base sa Alert Levels ng mga probinsya/highly urbanized cities (HUC)/independent component cities (ICC) at risk category ng munisipalidad at siyudad,” DepEd said.
Education secretary Leonor Briones earlier said only 120 schools – 100 public and 20 private – would be chosen to pilot face-to-face classes.
Briones added that in-person classes will not be held on a daily basis but only “half a day every other week.”
Under the approved guidelines, Kindergarten classes will have 12 students while Grade 1 to 3 classes will have 16 students. Technical vocation classes, meanwhile, can have as many as 20 students.
Classes will last for three hours “maximum.”
DepEd was supposed to hold a dry run earlier this year but was suspended by President Rodrigo Duterte over fears of more infectious coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) variants.
It was again rejected in February as the country had yet to roll out its COVID-19 vaccination program at the time.
Various groups and lawmakers called for the resumption of in-person classes, starting in low-risk areas, as they acknowledged the limits of distance or remote learning in the Philippines, a country where internet access remains uneven.
Philippine schools have been closed since March 2020 when the country was placed under an enhanced community quarantine to avoid exposing students and educators to COVID-19./PN
