President Rodrigo Duterte has approved more initial schools to participate in the pilot implementation of face-to-face classes, the Department of Education (DepEd) said today.
According to the department, they assessed liaison with the Department of Health (DOH) that more schools will qualify for the pilot run due to improving the COVID-19 situation in localities throughout the Philippines.
“From the initial 100 public schools and 20 private schools, DepEd and DOH will determine the final number of pilot schools based on DepEd’s evaluation of school readiness and DOH assessment of the COVID-risk level. We will announce the other pilot schools once validated,” said DepEd, Friday.
“The expansion of the number of pilot schools will allow a greater degree of experience among all our regions that will serve us well for the expanded phase of face-to-face classes.”
For now, the pilot face-to-face classes will continue in the 100 public schools first identified by the government on November 15.
Meanwhile, 20 private schools will begin on November 22 to be selected from today’s 30 candidates for face-to-face classes.
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Duterte wants more schools to join pilot face-to-face classes
“From the latest transmittal of DOH, 484 out of the 638 passed their granular risk assessment as minimal or low-risk. We have also received several appeals from LGUs, including NCR, to have their schools in their jurisdiction selected in the pilot implementation,” added DepEd.
Although there are already operational guidelines for returning frontline classes in elementary and select high schools, 13 groups say it is still “deficient” or insufficient to ensure the safety of children against COVID-19.
Some of the demands now of the National Union of Students of the Philippines, Kabataan, Bayan, etc., are the “weekly COVID-19 antigen testing,” particular vaccination, etc. of students, faculty, and staff who will participate in the pilot run-something DepEd does not require.
As many as 2.81 million people in the Philippines are infected with COVID-19, of the 44,866 people already dying from the virus in the country.
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