Only 30 out of the original 59 public schools may be able to participate in the pilot run of face-to-face (F-to-F) classes on November 15, 2021, an official of the Department of Education (DepEd) revealed on Tuesday.
“Based on the participating regions as of October 13, 2021, only 30 schools will be pushing through with the pilot implementation of the face-to-face classes,” said Dr. Malcolm S. Garma, Assistant Secretary for the National Academy of Sports and Field Operations.
Garma, however, said that 70 more schools are undergoing validation as of Monday, October 18.
He cited two major reasons why the number of schools was reduced: the local government units and the communities did not approve the conduct of the F-to-F classes and parents’ disapproval.
“Yung kanilang lugar ay biglang dumami ang mga kaso. Kaya ‘yung sa 59, naging 30 na lang [The Covid cases in their respective places increased. That is why the original 59 had gone down to 30],”Garma explained.
He, however, said that might still be a further increase or reduction among the 30 schools on the list, depending the Covid situation in their areas.
The DepEd official said that the target is still to include 120 participating schools.
The 30 participating schools are:
Masbate
- Gutusan Elementary School
- Mary B. Perpetua National High School
- Singalongan Elementary School
Aklan
*Laserna Integrated School
Antique
- Mayabay Elementary School
- Igsoro Elementary School
Cebu
- Basak Elementary School
- Mahanlud Elementary School
- Cabagdagan Elementary School
- Luyongbaybay Elementary School
- Cañang-Marcelo Luna National High School
- Busay National High School
- Pilar National High School
- Siocon National High School
Zamboanga Sibugay
- Siloh Elementary School
- San Vicente Elementary School
Zamboanga del Sur
- Manga National High School
- Manga Elementary School
- Lala Elementary School
- Sominot National High School
- Tabina Elementary School
- Guipos National High School
Lanao del Norte
- Dalama Central Elementary School
- Babalaya Elementary School
- Napo Elementary School
- Masibay Integrated School
- Tambacon Integrated School
- Marcela T. Mabanta National High School
North Cotabato
- Paco National High School
- Bato Elementary School
The list was drawn from the 638 nominated schools submitted by DepEd to the DOH earlier.
These identified schools were carefully tagged by the DOH Epidemiology Bureau as minimal or low risk, based on the alert levels by provinces/highly urbanized cities (HUC)/independent component cities (ICC) and risk category by municipality and city.
If the pilot F to F would prove to be a success, the DepEd said that the proposed expansion would push through on March 7.
The DepEd reiterated that the target F-to-F classes would help:
- Address difficulty in monitoring and assessing learning progress remotely
- Mitigate inequalities and unevenness in access to technology, household
resources, and student skills for self-learning
- Allow resumption of activities that cannot be done at home
- Address needs of learners with no adult in the family qualified to perform the role of learning facilitator
- Ease negative mental health and child development impact of the lack of face-to-face interaction and socialization among children
- With resumption of face-to-face classes, schools can help in the enforcement of health standards in school setting.
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