Public and private schools in Western Visayas are ready for the face-to-face classes with over 2,700 institutions already implementing the five-day in person classes as a transition option ahead of the mandated November implementation.
Hernani Escullar Jr., Department of Education (DepEd) Western Visayas regional information officer, said that of the 4,048 public schools in the region, 2,051 have already transitioned to the five-day in person classes while 1,197 are on blended learning modality.
“There are no public schools that offer the school distance learning. These 1,197 schools will transition to the five-day in person classes and are the focus of our division offices for appropriate technical assistance,” he said on Wednesday.
Some of them have even migrated to four-day in person and one day distance learning, he added.
Escullar said they have already crafted their Basic Education Learning Continuity and Recovery Plan that will answer the learning loss, part of which is the transition to the full face-to-face classes and health protocols that will be followed, and strengthening of coordination with local government units and parents, among others.
For private schools, the Quality Assurance Division came out with a survey on the option that they will choose beyond Nov. 2 and the result showed that 655 private schools intend to go into full face-to-face classes while 306 are into blended learning modality, and none for full distance learning.
“The data is not yet final because we continue to collect data from the private schools and we roughly have two weeks to know their preferred learning modality,” Escullar said.
DepEd Order 44, amending DepEd Order 34, gave private schools options to go into full distance learning, five days in-person classes, and blended learning modality starting Nov. 2.
Since the start of classes on Aug. 22, Escullar said the DepEd Health and Nutrition Unit has not recorded an outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the region.
There were learners who manifested Covid-19-like symptoms due to change in climate but upon checking and assessment by health authorities, they were negative of the infection.
Escullar said school heads are always reminding parents not to send their children to school if they have symptoms and immediately coordinate with the barangay health emergency response team.
If already in school, the clinic should be informed immediately, he said.
“We are happy with the actions being made at the ground level. Because of their strict compliance to health protocols, we have not recorded any outbreak of the disease,” he added. (PNA)
