Two years after face-to-face classes have been suspended by the government due to the threat of Covid-19, the Department of Education (DepEd) is implementing the progressive expansion of limited in-person learning.
However, Education Secretary Leonor Briones noted that the implementation of face-to-face learning would not be the same as it was before the pandemic.
“Even as we are excited about face-to-face, the face-to-face that we are implementing is not going to be like the face-to-face that you are used to where you are with the teacher, where the children move around as they please,” Briones said in a virtual presser on Wednesday, March 23.
“Even in the most admired countries who are supposed to be active in face-to-face , they don’t have face-to-face everyday, everyday,” Briones added.
DepEd’s latest data showed that 10,196 public and private schools are currently implementing limited face-to-face classes nationwide.
More schools are expected to hold limited face-to-face classes as DepEd revises its School Safety Assessment Tool (SSAT) which has streamlined the requirements for the conduct of in-person sessions.
READ:
https://mb.com.ph/2022/03/23/deped-to-release-revised-school-safety-assessment-tool-final-guidelines-on-face-to-face-classes/
Data from its latest quick count, DepEd said that there are 14, 396 public and private schools “nominated” for the progressive expansion phase of the limited face-to-face classes with 2,600,773 learners.
While DepEd continues to push for the resumption of face-to-face classes, Briones said that the schools are still under a blended learning setup.
“The dominant approach is a blended approach where you have both online teaching as well as face-to-face,” she said.
Briones explained that in the future, the world would be different “much of how the world operates including the Philippines will be online, and will use very high levels of technology.”
Thus, Filipino learners will “have to be prepared not only by face-to-face but also they have to be prepared for online, for technology, for the advances of science and technology.”