MANILA – The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday stated that the country is ready for a full and nationwide implementation of the in-person classes next year but the modalities may differ based on their locations.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones said at the Laging Handa Public briefing that about 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.
Some 34,238 schools, as of May 26, 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.
According to Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio, that at 100 percent, schools nationwide will be urged 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.
Meanwhile, Briones noted that there is a strong 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.
