Duterte approves face-to-face classes in 120 schools

MANILA: President Rodrigo Duterte has approved the pilot-testing of face-to-face classes in 120 public and private schools in areas considered as “low risk” from the coronavirus pandemic in the country, his spokesman said on Monday.

Harry Roque said that with the Duterte approval, it removed the Philippines from the list of the remaining only two countries in the world — along with Venezuela — which have not resumed face-to-face classes since the pandemic struck in 2020.

“We need to pilot here face-to-face classes because this is no longer an issue of education. This is also an issue of mental health of our youth. And this is also an economic issue because we might lose a generation because we don’t have face-to-face classes,” Roque told a media briefing in Filipino.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones who was with Roque at the briefing, welcomed Duterte decision. She said that initially, she and other education officials had proposed the resumption of face-to-face classes in 120 schools — 100 public and 20 private — in low risk COVID-19 areas.

However, Briones refused to identify the schools or when such classes would start, explaining these have yet to be clarified in the Duterte order. Nevertheless, she said the classes would be conducted in the following grade levels: Kindergarten, 12 students; Grades 1 to 2, 16 students; and technical vocational classes in senior high schools, 20 students.

Besides, Briones pointed out that Duterte ordered that face-to-face classes should be conducted for only half a day and every other week. Moreover, she said the resumption of such classes would be implemented with the basic health protocols to prevent the spread of the virus.

“The pilot run of face-to-face classes,” Briones said, “is a shared responsibility of the Department of Education, Department of Health, the IATF (Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases), local government units and the parents themselves will be monitored for two months,” Briones said.

She also emphasised: “The participating schools must have adequate facilities to ensure that social distancing and other protocols like the mandatory wearing of face mask and face shield are to be followed.”

Briones announced the start of the new schoolyear 2021-2022 for public school students on Sept.13. She reported that close to 28 million students have enrolled for the new schoolyear, with the majority atending public schools and the remaining students in their private counterparts.