Rappler.com-Aug 21
After two years of implementing distance learning due to the pandemic, schools in the Philippines are set to return to face-to-face classes on Monday, August 22. Not all schools will resume lessons in physical classrooms – 1,004 schools are still implementing remote classes for the meantime. In a press briefing on Friday, August 19, Department of Education (DepEd) spokesman Michael Poa said a total of 24,175 schools will implement five days of face-to-face classes and 29,721 schools will hold classes through blended learning. “Some schools will be in person, five days. Some schools will be blended. But let’s not forget that blended learning also has in-person classes for three days [in a week]. And then there’s full distance learning. So we are not expecting all of our schools to go to in-person immediately but we’re expecting that on Monday, most of our public schools will definitely go to-in person, five days,” Poa said in a Rappler Talk interview on Friday. Poa said schools holding classes through distance learning are those that were affected by calamities, such as the magnitude 7 earthquake in Abra in July that affected other provinces as well. In her first order as DepEd chief, Vice President Sara Duterte ordered all schools to return to face-to-face classes on November 2, although exemptions can be given to very “specific areas.” As of Saturday, August 20, a total of 27,691,191 students have enrolled for school year 2022-2023 – more than the previous school year’s 26.3 million students. There are no government-set preconditions for the return of students to the traditional mode of learning. They do not need to be vaccinated against the deadly virus that has so far infected over 3.8 million and killed 60,000 individuals in the Philippines. Read more at: https://www.rappler.com/nation/philippine-schools-return-in-person-classes-2022/
