Expanding reach of F2F classes

The Department of Education is hoping to continuously expand the implementation of limited face-to-face classes as more Filipinos are vaccinated with the success of the National COVID-19 Vaccination Days.

The government was able to administer a total of 10,254,560 COVID-19 vaccines nationwide in the five-day vaccination drive from November 29 to December 3 and even recorded its highest five-level average since March 2021 with the daily jab rate reaching 2.05 million in the past week.

The DepEd is gladly working with pertinent departments in this campaign, saying the success of education is very dependent on the health of the children, so there is a need to protect children and their parents.

The agency is looking at opening face-to-face classes not only in areas with low COVID cases but also urban areas. They are thinking largely of NCR, also of Region IV-A, and large cities with high population of children.

The Education department is highly encouraging parents to get their children vaccinated as the resumption of the face-to-face classes relies on the outcome of the immunization campaign.

According to the agency, they can move forward by 2022 or by the end of December, to end the pilot and implement a real policy for education, blended learning, combination of digital learning and face -to-face. They are also looking forward to giving kids a chance to see other kids too.

Meanwhile, the National Task Force on COVID 19 noted that 32% or 6.5 million of the 8,900,078 who were vaccinated in the first three days of the simultaneous immunization campaign are from the youth population aged 12 to 17 years old.

They had successfully held the national vaccination days because of the help, support, and solidarity of every Filipino citizen. In the ongoing bayanihan, 39.57 of almost 40 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated. Meanwhile, the total number of people who have been vaccinated is 57.64 million due to the huge impact of the national vaccination days in our expansion of the vaccination program nationwide.

They are also hoping to reach the country’s first vaccination milestone of having 54 million or more Filipinos be fully vaccinated before the end of the year to bring a happier and safer Christmas and New Year. *****

The author is Teacher III at Sta. Monica Elementary School San Luis District, SDO Pampanga