Students in 407 Eastern Visayas public schools go back to school

TACLOBAN CITY––Students from 407 public schools in Eastern Visayas returned Monday to their respective schools to attend the resumption of the limited in-person classes.

Jasmin Calzita, regional information officer of the Department of Education (DepEd), said of the 407 schools, 157 are in Samar; 155 in Eastern Samar; 77 in Leyte; 13 in Southern Leyte; and 5 in Northern Samar.

The conduct of the in-person classes came as Malacanang placed Eastern Visayas under Alert Level 2 due to the decreasing number of COVID-19 cases.

Gary Mosquito, principal of the Cabarasan Daku Elementary School in Palo, Leyte, said parents and students were excited for the resumption of the in-person classes in their school.

“We are very happy that our opening of the expanded limited face-to-face classes was very successful. We don’t have any issues and concerns or challenges experienced. It was very organized, and health protocols were observed upon entry at the school gate,” Mosquito said.

He said a nurse, assisted by a barangay health emergency response team (BHERT) member, guards the school gate.

All the teachers were vaccinated fully against COVID-19.

Gary Vacunawa, principal of the Cabacungan National High School in Allen town, Northern Samar, said students attended their classes for four hours and 30 minutes in the morning.

The participating students and the 20 teachers were fully vaccinated, Vacunawa said.

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