THE Department of Education’s push for 100% face-to-face classes for School Year 2022-2022 is most welcome. But it should ensure that school facilities are ready and adequate for the safe reopening of schools.
This is actually long overdue. Our pupils have endured two years of blended distance learning which further worsens the education crisis in the country. Face-to-face classes are still the best way for pupils to gain access to quality education.
But there are important measures to ensure the safe reopening of classes. DepEd must ensure that classrooms have better ventilation, air filtration, washing, and sanitation facilities. The government must ramp up COVID-19 vaccination. There’s even a suggestion to provide free weekly testing for teachers and education support personnel who will participate in face-to-face classes. Some quarter also push for the mass hiring of school nurses and for the allocation of medical fund for the treatment of those who will get infected with COVID-19.
Indeed, government should ramp up its plans and prepare our schools for the safe reopening of classes to also boost the nation’s confidence. Use scientific measures and not non-sense policies to ensure that our schools are indeed safe for in-class learning. Let us not waste any more resources with barriers and never-ending lockdowns of schools.
We hope that this push of DepEd will materialize by School Year 2022-2023. We urge the government to ensure that the demands for the safe reopening of schools are met. It’s time for students to go back to school.
The longer our students are confined to modules and online distance learning where they learn very little from, the more their learning will suffer.
