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MANILA, Philippines — Fifty-nine schools have so far passed the risk assessment of the Department of Health (DOH) for the conduct of pilot face-to-face classes that will start on November 15.
According to Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan, the 59 schools have so far “passed the granular risk assessment as minimal or low risk” by the DOH. He said there were 638 nominated schools for the pilot test of in-person classes.
“Regional directors may submit justification for inclusion of specific schools, for further evaluation by the DOH,” he said during a hearing of the Senate basic education committee.
Below is the list of 59 schools that have already passed the risk assessment of the DOH:
Table from DepEd
The DepEd plans to include a total of 100 public schools and 20 private schools in the pilot run of face-to-face classes.
Meanwhile, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire assured that the benefits outweigh the risks in the selected schools for the conduct of the pilot test.
“We have ensured that [for] the schools that will be eligible to participate for this pilot implementation, we were able to ensure that the benefits outweigh the risk through the selection of appropriate activities. Second, we have ensured that through the protocols, we will be controlling transmissions by implementing only this pilot implementation in minimal to low-risk areas,” said Vergeire.
“Based on our risk assessment, we can only recommend 59 schools for now. But this will be a regular assessment, and every week we will be submitting to DepEd the list of schools or areas that can still be included as part of this pilot implementation,” she added.
According to Malaluan, the assessment of the initial run of face-to-face classes will be conducted from November 15 to December 22, while the end of the pilot study is scheduled for January 31. DepEd plans to expand the holding of face-to-face classes to other schools and areas on March 7.
The pilot test will cover kindergarten to grade 3 students without existing comorbidities, while only subjects that require laboratories or workshops for senior high schools will be allowed for in-person classes. The participation of students will be voluntary and will require signed consent from their parents.
According to the DepEd, a blended learning approach will be applied in the pilot run, which will be an alternate of one-week face-to-face and one-week distance learning methods.
The students will stay for four hours and 30 minutes in school, except for kindergarten learners who will only stay for three hours.