DepEd to release list of schools in pilot in-person classes

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) is planning to release the list of schools that will participate in the pilot implementation of in-person classes this week.

According to Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan, the DepEd is considering informing the regional directors first to give them an opportunity to clarify and ask questions through a briefing.

“Once finalized, we will then be ready to disclose it to the public. We want to ensure that the list is definite before we release it to avoid premature assessment on those schools,” he said at a press conference on Friday.

Nepomuceno said the pilot implementation, backed with the guidance prepared by the department, would enable the expansion of in-person classes in more areas.

“We appeal to everyone, no matter how many will be selected [for the pilot test], this is not a localized effort but a national effort to look into how safe learning through [in-person] classes can be blended into our learning delivery [system],” he said.

After the identification of participating schools next week, Nepomuceno said the execution of in-person classes would not start immediately.

“As soon as the deliberations on selected schools are finalized, before the actual classes, there will be an orientation with all the participants to ensure that it’s all systems go,” he said.

Field visits will also be conducted but only for a short time so the actual implementation can kick off within the year, Nepomuceno added.