In-person classes to resume on Nov. 15 in 120 schools

MANILA, Philippines — The pilot run of limited in-person classes in low-risk areas will begin on Nov. 15, the start of the second academic quarter.

According to the timeline presented on Wednesday by Education Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan to the Senate committee on basic education, arts and culture, an initial assessment of the pilot study will be conducted from Nov. 15 to Dec. 22.

The end of the dry run is scheduled on Jan. 31, 2022, after which the Department of Education (DepEd) plans to evaluate the pilot study and identify more schools for the targeted start of expansion on March 7.

Malaluan said the DepEd would conclude the data-gathering to be able to report to President Duterte on the pilot run by the end of February.

“While we are doing all of these, we will be preparing for assessments of possible expansion of schools,” he said.

59 public schools

The DepEd released an initial list of 59 public schools chosen to take part in the dry run after passing the risk assessment conducted by the Department of Health (DOH).

Malaluan said the DOH would transmit an assessment of qualified schools every Monday to complete a target of 120 schools.

Most of the schools selected for limited face-to-face classes are in the provinces of Zamboanga and Cebu. The others are in the provinces of Masbate, Aklan, Antique, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Sur, Lanao del Norte, Sarangani and Cotabato.

Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said that based on the agreement between the DepEd and DOH, only schools in low- to minimal-risk areas—or those under alert levels 1 and 2—would take part in the dry run.

“The alert level classification includes parameters on the case trends and the health-care utilization in an area,” she said.

In Metro Manila, for example, while there is a decline in the number of reported COVID-19 cases, the hospitals and emergency rooms are still full and the utilization rate of intensive care units is more than 70 percent, Vergeire said.

She said 10 cities had hospital utilization rates of over 70 percent.

“We are coordinating with our child health experts and our TAG (technical advisory group) experts on how we can include urban areas in these levels of classification because right now, most of the urban areas are on high alert levels,” Vergeire said.

“We need to see the successful implementation of this pilot face-to-face [classes] before we can decide on further expansion,” she said.

Teachers’ vaccination

The DOH is to add more schools to the initial list when a decline in hospital utilization rate in other areas is seen.

But on Tuesday, senators questioned the DepEd’s “lack of urgency” in the vaccination of teachers against COVID-19.

Sen. Pia Cayetano said vaccination efforts should have been in full gear even when the resumption of face-to-face classes was still being planned, so that when the President gave the go-signal, “we start with our feet on the ground running, not like crawling.”

Malaluan reported to the committee chaired by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian that only 30 percent of the DepEd teaching staff had been vaccinated. He later clarified that it was just his “quick recollection” of the statistics in August.

Per updated data, the vaccination rate among more than 970,000 teachers is at 57 percent.

Gatchalian said he was surprised at the low figure.

“We’re pushing very hard to reopen schools as soon as possible. We are hoping that there would be special considerations for teachers because they’re considered education front-liners,” he said.

Cayetano noted that the vaccination of teachers to be included in the pilot study was “not top priority” and “almost like an afterthought.”

Front-liners

According to Ted Herbosa, special adviser to the National Task Force Against COVID-19, teachers are part of the priority group for vaccination, and classified under the A4 category.

Sen. Nancy Binay proposed a special vaccination program in which the DepEd would gather the teachers in one place for their jabs.

“I see that being done in other industries like transportation and tourism, so why can’t we do it to our teachers?” she said, adding that the 57-percent rate was unacceptable.

“As a parent … I would not allow my child to go back to school if I’m not sure that [the teachers] are vaccinated. If the vaccination rate is this low, [the opening of] more schools would also be delayed,” she said.