With the scheduled mandatory implementation of five days of in-person classes in all schools starting in November, a coalition of groups on Monday, Sept. 19, urged the Department of Education (DepEd) to ensure the safety of learners and teachers by issuing “clear” ventilation guidelines.

“As 28 million learners go back to school, they deserve nothing less than a learning environment free from disease and harm,” said the groups from education, social welfare, local government, public finance, and transportation sectors in a joint statement.

Aral Pilipinas, Advocates of Inclusion, Young People’s Council PH, Komyut, Move Metro Manila, Bicycle Friendly Philippines, Move As One Coalition, and Galing Pook Foundation called for a greater emphasis on ventilation measures in the full implementation of face-to-face classes this November 2022 as stated in the DepEd Order 34 series 2022 or the School Calendar and Activities for the School Year 2022–2023.

With the easing of physical distancing in classrooms, the groups said that DepEd can allow more learners to safely attend face-to-face classes through specific ventilation guidelines for schools.

“Good ventilation and filtration can be complemented with masking, hand washing, and other health and safety protocols,” the coalition of groups said.

“By acknowledging that Covid-19 transmission is airborne, corresponding ventilation policies must be put in place since there is a greater risk of transmission indoors compared to outdoors,” they added.

READ:

https://mb.com.ph/2022/08/22/covid-19-pandemic-no-longer-an-excuse-to-keep-children-from-schools-duterte/

To help ensure that learners, teachers, and their families will be safe as well by minimizing the risk of infection of Covid-19 and to increase confidence in returning to schools, the groups urged the DepEd to provide “detailed guidelines that would enable schools to adopt measures to improve ventilation.”

These guidelines, they added, should be based on the given class size, room size, and class duration, among others, and to maintain airflow at 1,000 parts per million based on the Department of Health (DOH) Administrative Order No. 2021-0043.

“We believe that safety and learning continuity can go hand-in-hand, and our 28 million learners deserve a learning environment free from disease and harm,” they said.

In July, DepEd released the guidelines on the school calendar and activities for SY 2022-2023 under its commitment to the resumption of five days of in-person classes.

DepEd also provided direction and guidance in the re-opening of classes and the gradual introduction of five days of in-person learning modality classes.

The agency only prescribed the options of five days of in-person classes, blended learning modality, and full distance learning until Oct. 31, 2022.

Starting Nov. 2, 2022, DepEd said that “all public and private schools shall have transitioned to 5 days of in-person classes” and that “no school shall be allowed to implement purely distance learning or blended learning” except for those implementing Alternative Delivery Modes.

READ:

https://mb.com.ph/2022/08/11/face-to-face-classes-will-be-mandatory-for-public-private-schools-this-sy-deped/