MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine government has allowed the conduct of a dry run of limited physical classes in selected areas, Malacañang said Monday.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made the announcement during a Palace briefing.
Roque said areas included in the dry run will be determined by the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Department of Health (DOH).
DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones, who was also present during the briefing, said President Rodrigo Duterte approved the conduct of the face-to-face classes on Monday morning.
Briones said there is no definite date yet but the pilot testing is expected to start when all necessary requirements have been met.
The Education chief said 100 public schools and 20 private schools that have passed readiness assessment in areas approved for the conduct of limited in-person classes will participate in the dry run.
These schools must have adequate facilities to ensure that social distancing and minimum public health protocols will be strictly observed.
She added that participating schools must also seek approval from their respective local governments and that students must secure a written consent from the parents or guardian.
“Na-inspect na namin yung aming facilities dahil kung hindi appropriate, hindi rin namin papayagan. So, in two months time handa na pati curriculum, etc,. kasi matagal na namin itong pinag-iisapan at alam namin kung ano ang ginagawa sa ibang bansa,” Briones said.
Under the approved guidelines, Kindergarten classes will include 12 learners while Grade 1 to 3 classes will have 16 students. Technical-Vocation classes in five senior high schools may have 20 learners.
Learners in Kindergarten to Grade 3 will only spend a maximum of three hours in school while senior high school students will have 4 hours.
In compliance with the president’s directive, only teachers and school personnel aged 65 and below and are not suffering from any kind of medical condition, regardless of vaccination status, may join the test run.
The pilot test will run for two months.
Briones said the results of the dry run will be used to determine if more schools will be allowed to hold limited physical classes.
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