Public schools are receiving a slew of requests from parents for their children to be included in limited face-to-face classes, an official from DepEd Imus City told the Manila Bulletin.

The city's Gov. D.M. Camerino Integrated School is one of the 170 public schools approved by the Department of Education (DepEd) to participate in the pilot implementation of limited face-to-face classes as part of its expansion phase.

"Mga 90 percent of our parents, all of them are expressing their desire to be a part of limited face-to-face," DepEd Imus City Schools Division Superintendent Dr. Rosemarie Torres told the Manila Bulletin.

"Because let's face it – 'yung parents who can't afford to provide gadgets for online learning, gusto pa rin nila may guro na nakatutok (they still prefer to have a teacher instruct their kids)."

Aside from the lack of gadgets, many parents also said that they're too busy with work and house chores to teach their children.

Despite being bombarded with requests, the school can only accommodate 12 students in Kindergarten and 16 students in Grades 1 to 3 in accordance with DepEd's guidelines this December.

The Challenge to Educators

So far, the limited face-to-face classes in Gov. D.M. Camerino Integrated School are running smoothly. However, the real challenge comes after the bell rings.

"Pagkaalis ng bata sa school kasama ang magulang, minsan makikita namin isinama sa fastfood, sa mall (When the kids are done with school, their parents take them to fastfood restaurants, malls)," Torres shared.

"Kapag nahawa sila ng COVID, kahit hindi nila nakuha sa eskuwelahan, definitely, affected ang implementation namin ng limited face-to-face (If they catch the coronavirus disease, even if they didn't get it from the school, it will definitely affect the implementation of limited face-to-face classes)."

Four other schools in Imus are now preparing to get approval to be part of the extended implementation of face-to-face classes in January.