Face-to-face classes, if approved, might have limited hours: Palace | ABS-CBN

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Face-to-face classes, if approved, might have limited hours: Palace

Face-to-face classes, if approved, might have limited hours: Palace

ABS-CBN News

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Students wear face masks in a school in Brgy Batasan Hills, Quezon City on Feb. 3, 2020. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News/File

MANILA — Face-to-face classes might be limited to only a few hours at a time, should President Rodrigo Duterte approve their pilot run in areas with low risk of COVID-19 transmission, Malacañang said on Friday.

Duterte and his Cabinet on Feb. 22 will tackle the possible approval of in-person classes, said Palace spokesman Harry Roque.

"Hindi naman sinabi na palibhasa face-to-face, 'yan po ay 8 hours, 5 days a week," he said in a televised announcement.

"Pwede naman one hour per week, 3 hours per week, basta meron lang pong kombinasyon ng module, ng computer-aided at saka face-to-face kung kinakailanagan makipag-ugnayan sa mga guro."

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(Face-to-face classes do not mean 8 hours, 5 days a week. These could be held an hour per week, 3 hours per week, in a combination of module, computer-aided learning and face-to-face classes if students need to coordinate with teachers.)

The President earlier suspended the pilot testing of in-person classes due to a new, more contagious COVID-19 variant, cases of which have been confirmed in some parts of the country.

“Pero sa tingin ko po, alam na natin ang anyo ng bagong variant ngayon, mas nakakahawa. Pero alam din po natin ang kasagutan sa bagong variant na ‘yan mas maigting na mask, hugas at iwas,” Roque said earlier this week.

(But I think we now know this new variant, that it is more contagious. But we also know that the answer to that new variant is to wear a mask, wash our hands, and avoid gatherings.)

Video courtesy of PTV

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said her department was preparing in case the president gives them the green light to pilot test the resumption of face-to-face or in-person classes.

“Naghahanda kami. Baka dadating na i-lift na ni President [Rodrigo Duterte] ang deferment ng pilot studies natin na ito,” she said in a Palace briefing on Thursday.

(We’re preparing. The President might lift the deferment of our pilot studies.)

Briones cited a survey conducted by the Department of Education (DepEd), which she said showed that “more than 50 percent” of students are in favor of attending in-person classes.

A “significant portion” of teachers also want to hold limited in-person classes while parents remain undecided on the matter, she added.

Briones reiterated that “stringent” conditions must be met before a school can implement limited in-person classes, such as securing the approval of the local government, getting written consent forms from parents, and ensuring students’ safety in public transportation, among others.

The education chief said prolonged school closures have an impact on the psychosocial welfare of students.

The Philippines is also the only country in Southeast Asia that has yet to hold in-person classes, even on a limited scale to supplement distance-learning modalities, she added.

In the past weeks, various groups have called on the government to safely reopen schools and conduct in-person classes, saying that the current distance learning setup is no longer feasible due to several issues faced by students, parents and teachers.

— With a report from Jaehwa Bernardo, ABS-CBN News

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