DepEd: 304 schools under Alert Level 2 ready to participate in expansion phase of face-to-face classes

The Department of Education (DepEd) on Friday said at least 304 public schools in areas under Alert Level 2 are ready to participate in the expansion phase of face-to-face classes.

At a virtual press conference, DepEd Assistant Secretary Malcolm Garma said at least 6,347 public schools “underwent assessment and are deemed ready” to be included in the expansion phase of the limited face-to-face classes.

He, however, noted that at least 304 public schools are ready to start for the implementation of limited face-to-face classes since these are located in areas under Alert Level 2.

Of these schools, there are 12 public schools in Region 2; 106 public schools in Region 3; 54 public schools In Region IV-A; nine public schools in Region VIII; and 123 public schools in the National Capital Region (NCR).

In the expansion phase, schools must be validated as compliant with the standards of the School Safety Assessment Tool (SSAT) and located in areas under Alert Levels 1 and 2 based on the periodic risk assessment by the DOH.

The participating schools in the expansion phase may also include other grade levels, based on the capacity of the schools.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones earlier said students who will be participating in the face-to-face classes must also have the written consent of their parents.

“Only vaccinated teachers may participate in the face-to-face classes, and vaccinated learners shall be preferred,” she added.

Over 80% of teaching, non-teaching personnel vaccinated vs. COVID-19

Meanwhile, at least 83.48% of teaching and non-teaching personnel have already been vaccinated against COVID-19, DepEd Director of Bureau of Learner Support Services Lope Santos III said.

Santos said about 810,300 or 83.48% personnel were already vaccinated, while 689,176 have completed their second dose as of January 2022.

He said 181,932 personnel, on the other hand, were still unvaccinated, of which 138,030 personnel were registered and waiting for their scheduled vaccination.

“Yung information po natin as of January and December, may pitong regions na po nakapagsubmit up to January, yung ilang regions ay December sapagkat ngayong araw po yung aming deadline para sa update as of January, yung ibang regions nakapagupdate na,” he said.

(Our information is as of January 2022 and December 2021, there are seven regions that have already submitted up to January 2022, while some regions were only submitted last December because today is our deadline for the update in January, the other regions have already updated.)

“We hope that once na-consolidate namin yung data, aangat pa itong vaccination rate natin (consolidate the data, the vaccination rate will increase),” he added.

Over 4.4M learners and 171K teachers affected by Odette

DepEd Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Service (DRRMS) Aldwin Rimbao reported that 10,623 schools, while 4,418,611 learners and 171,078 personnel were affected by Typhoon Odette last year.

Rimbao said at least 33 learners and 12 personnel died, while 6 learners and 12 personnel are still missing due to Odette, which was still for verification of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG).

He said the DepEd has downloaded P24,560,000 for affected schools for their clean-up and minor repairs.

Meanwhile, Rimbao said psychological first aid was also offered to those affected by the typhoon. — RSJ, GMA News