WHILE eight schools from two provinces in Davao Region will be participating in the launch of the pilot run of limited face-to-face (F2F) classes in the Philippines on November 15, 2021, two private schools in the region are also being lobbied to be included in the pilot F2F.
Department of Education-Davao Region (DepEd-Davao) Spokesperson Jenielito Atillo told SunStar Davao in a phone interview that the two schools that were recommended by their office also belong to "low risk" areas of the transmission of the Covid-19 virus.
Atillo declined to name the two private schools, but he said that on average, only one per region will be selected to be among the 20 private schools in the country for the pilot F2F.
But considering that there are 17 regions in the country, he said they are hoping that the two schools will be selected from Davao Region.
The city was not included in the earlier selection since it has been tagged as a "high risk" area due to the surge of cases experienced in the previous months.
In a press release, the Department of Education (DepEd) has already completed the list of 100 public schools that will participate in the pilot F2F classes in the country. The list included elementary and secondary schools from Davao del Sur and Davao de Oro, which were identified as "low risk" areas.
In Davao del Sur, these are Clib Public School in Hagonoy and the Nodilla Elementary School and Tacub Elementary School in Kiblawan.
Schools in Davao de Oro that qualified for the limited F2F include Bares Elementary School (Pagsabangan Extension) in New Bataan, Parasan Integrated School in Pantukan, and Lower Panansalan Elementary School (Jacinto Extension), Maugat Elementary School, and Digaynon Integrated School in Compostela.
Meanwhile, Atillo said that the list, while considered approved under their level, will still need to be approved by President Rodrigo Duterte.
He also said that the selected schools might be pulled out from the list if there will be an outbreak of transmission. Although he said it is unlikely to happen considering these areas belong to far-flung areas.
DepEd said in a previous press release that it is the Department of Health (DOH) that approves the schools to be included in the pilot implementation.
The pilot run will be assessed by the end of December and will end on January 31, 2022.
By February 2022, the DepEd, after the evaluation and assessment of the initial pilot run, will present to President Rodrigo Duterte the expansion of in-person classes, which will start on March 7, 2022.
Atillo said the initial 10 schools and the five schools recommended in Davao City that were not included in the pilot F2F might be recommended in the next batch of selection.
As of now, the identified schools in the region are already preparing for the start of the physical classes, and the identified students that will participate have already secured consent from their parents.