FROM a list of 638 public schools, the Department of Education will pick 100 schools that will be tapped to participate in the pilot run of the limited face-to-face classes amid the COVID-19 pandemic this week.
DepEd Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said the department’s technical and safety team will meet with their counterparts from the Department of Health today, Wednesday, to discuss and finalize the list.
Last Monday, Education Secretary Leonor Briones announced in a press conference in Malacanang that President Duterte has approved the pilot testing of limited face-to-face classes in areas with low cases of COVID-19.
Briones said 20 private schools will also participate in the pilot run.
Malaluan said Briones is set to sign the guidelines containing the safety protocols, emergency measures, and class schedules for the pilot run. Once signed, he said it will be sent to Health Secretary Francisco Duque III also for his signature.
Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the resumption of face-to-face classes was recommended by pediatric experts the DOH consulted, who warned of potential behavioral problems rising among kids.
“Their recommendation is that those young children need it already,” said Vergeire. “They said the children at those ages need the interaction with other people as part of their formation even for a brief time in a day.”
Covered by the DepEd plan are kindergarten to Grade 3 students, who will attend classes for about three hours every other week.
The Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA), which represents over 2,500 private education institutions nationwide with more than 300,000 personnel, said most of its member-schools want face-to-face classes instead of the current blended or distance learning mode being implemented for the second year since the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic in March last year.
In a television interview, COCOPEA managing director Joseph Noel Estrada said: “We support the preparations for the safe reopening of schools. This is a big step toward the opening of face-to-face classes.”
Briones said last Monday that teachers participating in the resumption of face-to-face classes need not be vaccinated but Deputy Speaker Bienvenido Abante Jr. said the teachers must be required to get themselves inoculated to help ensure the safety of the students, the teaching personnel and their families.
“I understand the need for us to begin pilot-testing face-to-face classes as the education of our children has really been compromised because of the pandemic. It’s clear that face-to-face classes is better than distance learning,” said Abante.
However, Abante said the health and safety of children should remain the priority, especially since many children have already contracted COVID.
Malaluan said the success or failure of the pilot run will be determined not by the absence of COVID cases among teachers and students who will participate but on how contingency measures would be applied.
“Part of the contingency measure is the lockdown of the school if needed,” he said.
The operational guidelines on the pilot run, which was prepared by the DepEd with the support of the World Health Organization and the UN Children’s Fund, provide health and safety standards in terms of personal protective equipment, sanitation, detection and referral, ventilation, contact tracing and quarantine coordination and contingency measures in case a learner or teacher tests positive for COVID-19.
PNP chief Gen. Guillermo Eleazar has directed the PNP Anti-Cybercrime Group to help in the investigation of alleged online cheating among students after the DepEd sought assistance to address the problem. — With Gerard Naval, Wendell Vigilia, and Victor Reyes
