MANILA – Only a 'very minimal' number of COVID-19 cases were reported among students and faculty participating in face-to-face tertiary level classes in the country, a Commission on Higher Education (CHED) official said Monday.
“The infection of those students attending limited face-to-face classes has been really minimal, including yung infection of our faculty,” CHED Executive Director Cinderella Jaro said on ANC’s “Rundown.”
“And also, yung mga (the) cases that we have encountered based on the reports of our regional offices, are also most of them, or all of them are mild to asymptomatic cases,” she added.
“So we can say that with the implementation of our guidelines, and observance also of our higher education institutions, we have been effective in curbing the infection among our students and faculty members,” she said.
Last month, CHED allowed the expansion of limited face to face classes to Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM), engineering, tourism, and maritime courses.
Students in Medicine and allied health courses, meanwhile, were permitted to conduct limited in-person classes in January.
On Friday, CHED Chairman Prospero de Vera also said the commission has created an experts group to craft guidelines for a "second option" on limited face-to-face classes for all degree programs.
The guidelines would aim to allow higher education institutions (HEIs) to open limited in-person classes for all degree programs.
“Isa sa mga condition ng Commission on Higher Education o ng aming commission en banc ay to make sure that all the, kumbaga concerns of our stakeholders will be discussed. Kaya naman si Chair Popoy sinabi niya, kailangan yung experts group natin ay involved ang ating mga state universities and colleges at ang ating mga higher education institutions,” Jaro said.
(One of the conditions of the Commission on Higher Education or of our commission en banc is to make sure that all of the concerns of our stakeholders will be discussed, so Chair Popoy said the experts group must include state universitied and colleges and higher education institutions.)
“Gayon din, kasama din sa ating gagawing experts group ang representatives from the local government units,” she added.
(Likewise, the experts group will also include representatives from the local government units.)
Jaro said it is important that educational institutions work with local governments as limited face-to-face classes resume.
“Very important kasi din kasi ang clearance or ang coordination with our local government units kasi mobility yan eh.”
(Coordination with our local government units is important because face-to-face classes involve mobility.)
“We have to determine also the, I mean, the concerns of our local government units since it will be the students, in case there will be infection, sa kanila pa rin naman din ang magiging kumbaga concern nito (it will also be their concern),” she added.
--ANC, 18 October 2021
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