DepEd allows 474 Central Visayas schools to start limited in-person classes

Central Visayas (Google Maps)

CEBU CITY, Cebu, Philippines — A total of 474 schools in Central Visayas have been given the go signal by the Department of Education (DepEd) to resume limited in-person classes after the region was downgraded to a more relaxed alert level 2.

Dr. Salustiano Jimenez, regional director of the DepEd, said these schools—from kindergarten to senior high school—were allowed to resume classes on separate dates between Feb. 21 and March 7.

“We decided not to allow the resumption of classes [for all the schools in the region] because we have to check and validate if they are indeed ready to open their doors to students,” Jimenez said on Saturday.

According to Jimenez, there are around 4,000 public schools and about a thousand private schools in the region composed of the provinces of Cebu, Negros Oriental, Bohol, and Siquijor, and the independent cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-Lapu.

Among the requirements schools have to comply with include the DepEd’s safety assessment tool and the concurrence from the parents and the concerned local governments, he said.

Jimenez said some schools resumed their classes on Feb. 21 while others would begin on Feb. 28, March 1 and March 7.“We expect more schools to also resume classes in the coming days,” he said.

Central Visayas has been placed under alert level 2 starting Feb. 16 until March 15, as COVID-19 cases, which spiked early this year due to the Omicron variant, have dropped.

Stalled by Odette

Of the schools that would implement limited in-person classes, only 15 were private schools, mostly in Cebu, Jimenez said.

Jimenez said there were other schools that were supposed to reopen but their facilities were damaged by Typhoon “Odette” (international name: Rai) that hit Central Visayas on Dec. 16, 2021.

The damage brought about by the typhoon to public schools in Central Visayas has reached P10 billion, according to Jimenez.

Jimenez urged schools that would resume classes to follow the health protocols to prevent another surge in COVID-19 cases.

“I keep reminding them, with strong instructions, to observe the protocols set by the Department of Health and the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases),” he said.

Jimenez hoped that the pandemic would end soon to allow students to continue with their studies without inconvenience in school settings.

“I hope all schools throughout Central Visayas will resume their in-person classes. I hope we will have a ‘new normal’ in the DepEd,” he said.