Over 2,000 students from select public schools in Metro Manila are set to return to limited face-to-face classes on Monday, an official from the Department of Education (DepEd) said Sunday, Dec. 5.
According to DepEd, a total of 177 public schools will participate in the pilot run of limited in-person classes, 28 of which are in Metro Manila.
"Inaasahan po natin na mayroon tayong mahigit 2,000 mga bata sa key stage Kinder 1 to 3 at sa Senior High School kulang 300 pong mga estudyante (We expect to have more than 2,000 students from Kinder 1 to 3 and more or less 3000 students from Senior High School)," DepEd National Capital Region Regional Director Wilfredo Cabral said in an interview with TeleRadyo.
"Isa po tayo sa pinakahuli dahil kabababa lang ng ating alert level sa level 2 at pwede lang tayong mag-face-to-face sa low-risk , so medyo pumasa na tayo sa risk classification. Patuloy naman po yung paghahanda natin (We are one of the last to conduct face-to-face classes because we just shifted to Alert Level 2 and we can only hold face-to-face classes in low-risk areas. We already passed the risk classification. Are preparations are continuous)," Cabral added.
DepEd assures that all schools included in the pilot run went through stringent preparations and followed protocols needed to achieve a safety seal from the Department.
"Yan po ay dumaan sa masusing paghahanda, lahat ay sumunod doon sa patakaran na kailangang ma-achieve ang ating safety seal using the school safety assessment tool (These schools went through thorough preparations, everyone followed the policies needed to achieve our safety seal using the school safety assessment tool)," Cabral assured, noting that all teaching and non-teaching personnel included in the pilot run are all fully-vaccinated against COVID-19.
"Ang atin pong instruction, kung mayroong lalabas na kaso, whatever variant, stop agad ang ating implementation (Our instruction is, if someone tests positive, whatever variant, we will immediately stop the implementation of face-to-face classes)," he added.
Pilot face-to-face classes in select public schools started on Nov. 15 and Nov. 22 for private schools.