School Year 2022-23 begins in-person classes amid COVID-19 pandemic

Learners from all over the country started flocking to schools early Monday morning as face-to-face classes for School Year 2022-2023 officially start amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on data from the Department of Education (DepEd), 27.6 million students both from private and public schools have enrolled for this academic year—a slight shortfall from the agency’s 28.6 million target.

This school year provides for the implementation of combined in-person classes and distance from August to October, while the five-day face-to-face classes in public and private schools will start on November 2.

DepEd spokesperson Atty. Michael Poa noted Friday that a total of 24,765 private and public schools nationwide or 46% will implement in-person classes for five days while 29,721 schools nationwide or 51.8% will implement the blended learning modality.

For the first day of classes, he said that schools are already ready, adding that regional directors of DepEd are “very confident” that their facilities are sufficient for learners.

Meanwhile, Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte on Friday said DepEd is also prepared for the opening of classes, consistent with Department Order 24 which provides for the calendar and activities for School Year 2022-2023 despite the challenges they are facing.

According to the DepEd, 11 weeks are scheduled for every quarter of the academic year.

The first quarter is set from August 22 to November 4, 2022; the second quarter from November 7, 2022 to February 3, 2023; the third quarter from February 13 to April 28, 2023, and the fourth quarter from May 2 to July 7, 2023.

The Christmas break will start on December 19, 2022 and classes will resume on January 2, 2023. A mid-year break is also scheduled from February 6 to 10, 2023.

End-of-year rites will be held from July 10 to 14, 2023.

During the summer, the DepEd said remedial, enrichment, or advanced classes can be held from July 17, 2023 to August 26 to 2023.

Vaccination among students, teachers

With the opening of this academic year comes the DepEd’s implementation of the “No Discrimination Policy,” allowing both students and teachers to attend face-to-face classes despite their COVID-19 vaccination status.

This was a development from the latter part of the previous academic year wherein only vaccinated teaching and non-teaching personnel were allowed to participate in face-to-face classes, while vaccinated learners were preferred.

This was due to the approval of former President Rodrigo Duterte of DepEd’s proposal to expand in-person classes in areas under Alert Level 2 and below, provided that the host local government unit agreed to it, and that the parents or guardians allowed the children to physically go to school.

Concerns were however raised for learners as only 19% of them have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, days before school starts.

Poa credited this low figure on the government's COVID-19 vaccination program being non-mandatory.

Teaching and non-teaching personnel, on the other hand, show good figures as 92% of them have already completed their primary vaccine series against COVID-19.

In a bid to ramp up the vaccination uptake among students and teachers alike, the DepEd has been coordinating with the Department of Health (DOH) to roll out mobile COVID-19 vaccinations and organize counseling sessions in schools.

According to Poa, DepEd has also downloaded P3.7 billion nationwide to ensure that schools have sufficient equipment, especially for the observation of minimum health and safety protocols.

The pilot testing of face-to-face classes in the country started in November 2021 for both public and private schools that were subject to strict health protocols.

Duterte said that the Education department is studying the implementation of blended learning as a permanent mode of instruction. —KG, GMA News