More than 50 percent of the 5,068 public and private schools in Western Visayas have passed the evaluation for the implementation of the face-to-face classes, the Department of Education (Deped) reported on Wednesday.

“We have 2, 828 nominated schools in both public and private, which means they passed the validation (at the provincial) level and some will be for validation by the regional office. That’s 55.94 percent of our total schools,” said DepEd Region VI information officer Hernani Escullar Jr. in an interview.

The numbers are based on the record of the regional DepEd as of July 7, 2022.

Of the nominated schools, Escular said 1,366 have already implemented the limited face-to-face (F2F) classes in the previous school year.

DepEd Order No. 34 series of 2022 states that from Aug. 22 to Oct. 31, all schools will be given transition options to include going directly into in-person classes, blended learning for three days and two days of distant learning, and four days of in-person and one-day distant learning.

“It is stated in the DepEd Order that all public and private schools shall have a transition and after the said date (Oct. 31) no school shall be allowed to implement purely distant or blended learning except for those that are implementing alternative delivery mode as provided in DepEd Order No.21, series of 2019,” Escular said.

DepEd Order No. 21 refers to the guidelines for implementing the K to 12 Basic Education Program.

In DepEd Order No. 34, enrolment will already begin on July 25 until Aug. 22 while the Brigada Eskwela or the annual school maintenance program will be from Aug. 1 to Aug. 26.

Classes will officially start on Aug. 22 until July 7, 2023.

Division offices are already working on their learning continuity plan for the school year 2022-2023, he added. (PNA)