Half of public schools resume Face to Face classes

MANILA, Philippines — Over half of the public schools nationwide are implementing in-person classes six months after the government allowed the resumption of the face-to-face (F2F) classes that was stalled by the pandemic.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said a total of 25,668 public schools  all over the country are holding F2F classes.

The figure accounts for 56.89 percent of the over 47,000 public schools under the Department of Education (DepEd).

Briones said over 5.95 million learners in all grade levels were expected to participate in the in-person classes.

The figure accounts for about a quarter or 25.61 percent of the total 23.3 million enrollment in public schools.

“There’s no problem with public schools because the minute  a region is assessed and placed under Level 1 or 2, it}s automatic F2F,” Briones said in Filipino during the virtual Talk to the People briefing.

Vaccination for students is still voluntary, although Briones said a majority of them and almost all or 93 percent of the 947,000 teachers are fully vaccinated. All DepEd staff are also fully vaccinated.

More schools are expected to hold in-person classes following the revision of the School Safety Assessment Tool (SSAT) under the Revised Operational Guidelines on the Progressive Expansion of Face to Face Learning Modality.

Briones raised concern over the low number of private elementary and secondary schools implementing F2F classes.

She said only 676 or 5.47 percent of about 16,000 private schools are conducting in-person classes.

“This is a challenge to us, there are 676 private schools that opened face-to-face. It is ironic that at the height of the debates on face-to-face schooling, there were many crowd demands for face-to-face,” she said.

Briones said a total of 6.18 million learners are participating in the in-person classes to date.

Earlier she said the in-person classes promote mental health and child development as learners need to be nurtured and to interact with fellow children.

In September, Duterte allowed the pilot test of F2F classes in both public and private schools in areas deemed as low risk for COVID.

The Philippines was the last country in the world to reopen schools for in-person classes since the World Health Organization declared the pandemic in March 2020.

Presidential adviser for COVID-19 Response Vince Dizon said on Monday there is some resistance from private schools in implementing F2F classes.

“Upon some consultation conducted earlier this evening, it seems that it is a mix of various reasons, the most compelling of which is that some parents were still apprehensive about allowing their children to join face-to-face classes,” Dizon said.

He said the IAT is most likely to issue a “strong endorsement” for private schools to resume F2F classes at its next meeting.

Meanwhile, Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the government is planning to make COVID vaccines available in elementary and secondary schools. –  Helen Flores