DepEd eyes eased requirements for in-person classes

A teacher and her students learn together at the Pedro Cruz Elementary School in San Juan City as it reopened its in-person classes on Thursday, February 10, 2022. The school passed the DepED Schools Safety Assessment Tool (SSAT) which shows its readiness for the limited in-person learning modality. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE)

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) is eyeing the easing of requirements for the implementation of in-person classes as Metro Manila and other areas shift to a “new normal” starting this month.

“[The DepEd] thinks that alert levels 1 and 2 are almost the same … so now that it’s Alert Level 1, we want to reduce the protocols,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said during President Rodrigo Duterte’s taped report aired on Monday night.

As of February, 1,726 out of 6,213 qualified schools have reopened for in-person classes.

With more areas, including Metro Manila, on Alert Level 1 — the least restrictive quarantine classification — from March 1 to March 15, Briones said the number of schools allowed to conduct physical classes would soon increase so “if we are asked, we hope to loosen up the requirements.”

The DepEd and Department of Health officials are scheduled to meet on March 4 to discuss the matter.

“Alert Level 1 will be aligned to the impending return to normalcy in the economy,” she said.

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