MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines will begin its limited resumption of in-person classes on November 15, a senior education official said Wednesday.
President Rodrigo Duterte had approved the pilot run on 120 schools more than a year since classes were forced to be carried out remotely due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a Senate education committee hearing, Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan said the date coincides with the start of the second quarter of the ongoing academic year.
The agency's chief of staff added there are now 59 public schools cleared for the Department of Health's granular risk assessment.
In a list presented, the selected schools are from provinces such as Cebu, Antique, Masbate, Aklan, and Zamboanga Sibugay, to name a few.
"Because we could not complete yet the 100, DOH will have a rolling assessment of the remaining schools periodically...until we're able to complete the 120 inclusive of 20 private schools," Malaluan said.
The education official said there would be a close monitoring of the pilot run's progress, which would end on January 31, 2022.
By February, Malaluan said more schools would start to be identified for the implementation's expansion that could then begin by March 7.
DepEd and DOH have released the implementing guidelines for the conduct of the limited face-to-face classes.