The Department of Education (DepEd) said on Monday the country is ready for a full and nationwide implementation of the face-to-face classes next year but the modalities may still vary depending on their locations.

At the Laging Handa Public briefing, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said around 73.28 percent of the total number of public schools have already been deemed qualified for in-person learning.

“In the next academic school year, we’re expecting that the face-to-face implementation will be fully 100 percent, but again, I just want to emphasize that the modalities of face-to-face vary in every situation in schools, depending on their local governments,” she said in mixed English and Filipino.

As of May 26, some 34,238 schools have been nominated for the face-to-face classes, over 33,000 of them are public schools while the remaining 1,174 are private schools.

Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio explained that at at 100 percent, schools nationwide will be encouraged to have in-person schedules included in the “blended learning” setup.

“We are calling on all schools to implement face-to-face classes, but we are looking on the blended (setup), there are days for face-to-face, and there will be days allowed for home-based learning for kids,” he said in Filipino.

Briones, meanwhile, said there’s a deep need to continue the digital form of learning to “catch up” with the global learning trend, mentioning what she has recently observed during the international educational summit in the United Kingdom.

“Many countries, they are digitalized, they’re no longer using money, they are using cards instead, and we need to be ready for this, let’s prepare our learners. While face-to-face learning is very important for their social, as well as mental, and their personal growth, it’s also important to catch up on digital aspects,” she said in mixed English and Filipino. (PNA)