EDUCATION Secretary Leonor Briones yesterday said more than 25,000 public schools nationwide are now conducting face-to-face classes amid the lowering of restrictions due to the continuing decline in COVID-19 cases.
Briones said 25,668 public schools or 56.89 percent of the total number of public schools “are already participating and have actually started their face-to-face classes.”
However, only about five percent of all private schools are doing in-person classes.
“Six hundred seventy-six private schools or 5.47 percent of the total number of private schools have so far started implementing face-to-face classes,” Briones said.
“The challenge is our private schools since out of 16,000 private schools, we only have 676 doing face-to-face, in spite of the fact that they were quite active in demanding face-to-face (classes),” Briones added.
Briones had earlier said the department is closely coordinating with private school owners since many of them are still undecided on whether to participate in the in-person classes.
In all, the DepEd chief said 26,344 public and private schools nationwide are back to face-to-face classes.
Briones said 5,948,640 students across all levels are expected to participate in face-to-face classes in public schools.
“This represents 25.61 percent of the 23,230, 898 total enrollment in the public school sector,” Briones said.
However, only 226,991 students in private schools, representing 7.09 percent of the total enrollees, are participating in the in-person classes.
Overall, DepEd data showed 6,175,631 public and private school students are now participating in face-to-face classes.
Even with more schools resuming face-to-face classes, Briones has repeatedly said the department will still not do away with blended learning for now, where students continue their learning through modules or online or virtual education. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
