Vice President Sara Duterte issued the country’s public and private schools a directive on November 2 ordering them to switch to five days of in-person instruction.
This was stated in Department of Education (DepEd) Order 34, s. 2022, the schedule of events for the 2022–2023 academic year, which was made available to the general public on Tuesday, July 12.
As the DepEd order read, “Starting November 2, 2022, all public and private schools shall have transitioned to five days in-person classes. After the said date, no school shall be allowed to implement purely distance learning or blended learning except for those that are implementing Alternative Modes.”
As the nation battled with a new uptick in COVID-19 cases brought on by the Omicron strain, Duterte issued the order. Despite the rise in instances, the virus still posed little threat to the entire Philippines.
Here’s the part of the memo which contains the details regarding the conduct of FTF classes in all schools.
The school year 2022–2023 will start on August 22 and end on July 7, according to the DepEd regulation.
The DepEd stated that it will implement any of the following measures to provide schools sufficient time to gradually migrate to in-person classes:
- Five days of face-to-face classes
- Blended learning
- Three days of in-person classes and 2 days of distance learning, or 4 days of in-person classes and 1 day of distance learning
- Full distance learning
According to the DepEd, schools will only use these alternatives up until October 31, 2022.
Will all students be required to attend in-person classes? If they feel uneasy attending in-person classes, can students opt out? DepEd has been contacted by journalists seeking clarification. Once we have their response, we will update this report.
The Philippines is one of the few nations in the world whose schools have not fully opened for in-person instruction more than two years into the outbreak. There were around 25,786 schools offering in-person classes as of April 22.
In the nation, there are thought to be 60,000 public and private schools.
The DepEd previously reported that 12,000 private schools and 48,000 public schools nationwide had already achieved their face-to-face learning criteria.
