EIGHT schools in Davao Region will be part of the tentative list of 77 schools in the country that will be participating in the pilot implementation of the limited face-to-face (F2F) classes this November 15, 2021.
This was confirmed by Department of Education (DepEd) Assistant Secretary Malcolm Garma in a virtual presser on Friday, October 22.
Garma said based on the original data from DepEd-Davao, a total of 11 schools in the region were recommended to be included in the pilot limited F2F.
As of Friday, 77 schools in the entire region had passed the requirements of Deped using the school safety assessment tool.
The official said the list will still increase as DepEd is targeting to open 100 public schools and 20 private schools in the country.
The Department of Health (DOH) is currently assessing 638 schools in the country in areas under "low risk" of the Covid-19 transmission.
"In the original list submitted to DOH..., may mga (there are some) areas from Region 11 that are included, but we rely on the granular assessment that DOH is doing," he said.
Garma said that there is a possibility that more schools in the region will be added to the roster.
The official did not name the schools nor the areas included in the limited F2F.
DepEd Spokesperson Jenielito Atillo told SunStar Davao in a previous interview that 18 schools were originally among the 2,181 public schools in the region.
Atillo also declined to name the schools but revealed that all of them are outside Davao City.
However, he said this might still change due to the changing quarantine status per area.
He said Davao City would not be included in the initial batch due to the surge in Covid-19 cases in the city.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones said during the presser that they had been preparing for the limited F2F in the country while the country is adjusting with the blended learning modality due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Briones said she will be personally presenting the list of qualified schools to President Rodrigo Duterte for his approval. She also said the list might be expanded depending on the development of the pilot testing.
"Ang goal naman natin, as many schools as possible, kailangan may face-to-face component (Our goal is to have as many face-to-face components in schools as possible)," the education secretary said, adding that it is recognized as an important modality for learning.
She said the current physical setup would be different from the pre-pandemic, as health protocols would be placed to avoid causing widespread transmission in schools.
DepEd issued a previous memorandum mandating all teaching and non-teaching personnel in schools participating in the pilot F2F classes to be fully vaccinated.