The Department of Education (DepEd) clarified on Wednesday local government units (LGUs) and schools must first send them a request before limited face-to-face classes will be allowed in their respective areas by next year. 

Education Secretary Leonor Briones, in a statement, also explained limited face-to-face classes will only be allowed under strict conditions set by the DepEd, the Department of Health (DOH) and the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).

 “Face-to-face classes are not for all because we have standards,” Briones said in Filipino.

“We are not forcing everyone to to hold or attend limited face-to-face classes because this has to be approved first by the concerned agencies."

Limited face-to-face classes, Briones further stressed, “can only be considered” in low-risk areas or in areas at least under Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) or in the transition phase between GCQ and the New Normal.  

DepEd formally presented to President Duterte its limited face-to-face class program after receiving requests from LGUs and private schools - both local and international - for the same.

“International schools say that they can comply with the requirements of DepEd and IATF but we maintain there is a need to inspect their facilities first,” Briones said. 

Schools able to comply with the guidelines set for limited face-to-face classes will still be “strictly regulated" with the health and safety of learners, teachers, and personnel” among top priority. 

In particular, schools need to implement a “no mask, no entry” policy in its premises and they should also ensure availability of hand washing facilities. 

They also need to reduce class sizes to 15 to 20 students and the physical arrangement of seats should conform to required distances. 

Schools should also control the flow of learners and personnel, prohibit mass gatherings and put up visible instructions, signages and markings within the campus premises. 

Briones noted that a preparedness and case management system - in coordination with LGUs and local health for contact tracing, testing, isolation and treatment - should also be in place. 

“In addition, host local government units must be ready to support financially as well as in other ways the requirements for limited face to face learning,” Briones said. 

Before any face-to-face classes will be greenlighted in January next year, Briones noted that there will be pilot testing and inspection to be done jointly with the National Task Force Against COVID 19 to ensure that the “required health standards and protocols are working, and possible glitches are addressed.”

However, DepEd confirmed that a “a small number of private schools which started limited face-to-face classes last June will be allowed to continue.”