Still no guidance on in-person classes

DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa —NIÑO JESUS ORBETA/INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Education (DepEd) is still collating data on which schools can or cannot conduct full in-person classes, less than a month before its supposed implementation.

DepEd spokesperson Michael Poa said the agency was still in the process of drafting a report to be submitted to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., containing information on which schools were still conducting blended or full distance learning.

“Once given to the president, it will be up for his consideration on what will be done,” he added.

Under DepEd Department Order No. 34, series of 22— dated July 11 and the first order of Vice President Sara Duterte as DepEd secretary, all public and private schools that offer basic education programs will have to implement five days of in-person classes starting Nov. 2.

Poa said the DepED has yet to give public and private schools general instructions regarding preparations for Nov. 2, particularly if the blended learning modality will still be allowed.

“We have to wait for the decision of the president before we can give guidelines once November comes,” he noted.

DepEd gave all the schools in the country from the start of classes on Aug. 22 to Oct. 31 to transition to full physical classes. “After the said date, no school shall be allowed to implement purely distance learning or blended learning except for those that are implementing alternative modes,” the order read.

Private schools, however, asked Duterte to reconsider her decision and allow them to continue the blended and remote mode of learning to supplement physical classes even beyond the Oct. 31 ultimatum.

According to Poa, DepEd already directed the regional directors to identify schools which were still using blended and full distance learning, and to ask them their reasons for not implementing full in-person classes.

Based on the data released by DepEd in August, 46 percent, or 24,175 public and private schools nationwide, have reported implementing in-person for five days a week.

Majority of the schools — 51.8 percent or 29,721 schools — continued to do blended modality, or in-person classes for at least three days and the remaining two days online.

Meanwhile, the remaining 1.29 percent or 1,004 schools, implemented full distance learning. The delay in the release of DepEd guidance on the matter was announced after the release of a new Italian study suggesting that COVID-19 spreads far more easily in schools than in the community, and concluded that “uncontrolled COVID-19 transmission in schools could disrupt the regular conduct of teaching activities” and seed the transmission into other settings.

The comprehensive contact tracing study, published Sept. 20 in the “Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses” journal, shows that children in schools are a major source of transmission among students, while household spread is a major amplifier of infection.

The study analyzed transmission patterns associated with 976 SARS-CoV-2 exposure events involving 460 positive individuals in 2021 in the small Italian town in municipality of Mede in the Lombardy region.

The data were taken from routine surveillance and an extensive screening conducted on students, school personnel and their household members in the small municipality with more than 6,000 inhabitants.

“Despite protocols in place to curb SARS-CoV-2 transmission during in-person school attendance, our analysis suggests that younger age groups were deeply involved in the spread of the infection,” according to the results of the study.

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