ILOILO CITY — At least 80 additional schools are ready for face-to-face classes in Western Visayas region.
“The schools are on standby,” said Dr. Ramir Uytico, the Western Visayas regional director of the Department of Education (DepEd-6).
“However, the entire Region 6 is under Alert Level 3,” said Uytico in a virtual press conference.
Under Alert Level 3, face-to-face classes are prohibited.
DepEd-6 will have to wait for the national government’s task force on COVID-19’s new classification as Western Visayas is under Alert Level 3 until February 15.
Since November 2021, only schools identified as low-risk areas for COVID-19 are allowed to resume face-to-face classes.
With the expansion of face-to-face classes, Negros Occidental province has the biggest number of schools with 49 including in 16 towns. There are 15 other schools in seven different component cities: 11 schools in Silay City; 11 schools in Sagay City; eight schools in San Carlos City; four schools in Cadiz City, three schools in Escalante City; two schools in Himamaylan City; and one school in Victorias City.
Nine schools in Antique province are also ready for face-to-face classes.
In Iloilo province, five schools are ready including two schools in the component city of Passi.
In Aklan province, four schools are ready.
There is also one school each ready in Roxas City of Capiz province and in the island province of Guimaras.