THE Education Department said the country is ready for a full and nationwide implementation of the face-to-face classes next year, but modalities may still vary depending on their locations.
At the “Laging Handa” public briefing on May 30, Department of Education (DepEd) chief Leonor Magtolis Briones said around 73.28 percent of the total number of public schools have already been considered for in-person learning.
“In the next academic school year, we’re expecting that the face-to-face implementation will be…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,” Briones said.
As of May 26, some 34,238 schools have been nominated for face-to-face classes. Over 33,000 of them are public schools; the remaining 1,174 are private.
Undersecretary Diosdado San Antonio explained that at 100 percent, schools nationwide would be encouraged to conduct in-person schedules included in the blended-learning setup. As such, he called on all schools to implement physical classes, but on a blended scheme, as there are days for face-to-face, and there will be days allowed for home-based learning for kids.
Meanwhile, the education secretary said there is a real need to continue the digital form of learning to “catch up” with global trends, as she shared her recent observation while at the international educational summit in the United Kingdom.
“Many countries…are digitalized…and we need to be ready for this,” she urged. “Let’s prepare our learners. While face-to-face learning is very important for their social, mental, and personal growth, it’s also important to catch up on digital aspects,” she said.
Image credits: Screengrab/PNA