SAN JOSE, Antique – The Schools Division of Antique is planning to have more schools adopt face-to-face (F2F) classes, once its implementation in two pilot schools starting today proves successful.
“The plan is to have a school in every district (to) at least have face-to-face classes,” said Education Supervisor Edward Bana, officer-in-charge of the Schools Division of Antique’s Curriculum Implementation Division.
It is crucial that the F2F classes in the two pilot schools – the Mayabay Primary School in Barbaza town and the Igsoro Integrated School in Bugasong town – become successful, he stressed.
School officials, he said, are doing their best to ensure that the start of the face-to-face classes would be smooth.
Learners will only have four hours of classes every morning during class days and do modular work at home in the afternoon.
Bugasong Public School District Supervisor Julian Ambay said their pilot school is ready for F2F classes.
Their local government unit (LGU), headed by Mayor John Lloyd Pacete, will provide snacks during the first four weeks so that the learners would have something to eat during recess.
“The learners will be provided with nutritious food to be prepared by a nearby bakery in Barangay Igsoro,” he said.
District of Barbaza principal-in-charge Marilou Juanitas, who supervises the Mayabay Primary School, said their learners are using color coding in their identification cards’ lace so that they could be easily identified whether they belong to Kinder or Grades 1 to 3.
Juanitas said it is important that teachers easily identify them in case they wander off to other classrooms, which is prohibited as a preventive measure against the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019.
“Learners are being told to only stay in their classrooms,” she said.
Juanitas said they have provided an isolation room in case a learner does not feel well while in school.
One teacher was hired by the LGU to attend to sick learners.
Meanwhile, Evelyn Remo, who is the Department of Education (DepEd) Antique Schools Governance and Operations Division chief, said parents have been advised not to let their children go to school if they sense that they are unwell.
She said the two schools were chosen as a pilot for the face-to-face classes because of their zero COVID-19 cases.
Mayabay Primary School has 63 learners while the Igsoro Integrated School has 89. (PNA)
