SCHOOLS in Mandaue City, Cebu are already 90 percent prepared for the opening of school classes on August 22, said the Department of Education (DepEd) Division of Mandaue City.
Nimfa Bongo, DepEd-Division of Mandaue superintendent, told SunStar Cebu on Monday, August 15, 2022, that most of their preparations were achieved during the "Brigada Eskwela" that they launched on August 2.
Dr. Mylene Ordilla, Senior Education Program specialist and Brigada Eskwela coordinator, said the ongoing Brigada Eskwela has so far been successful and has gathered almost 15,000 participants, mostly parents.
Ordilla said they have not received any complaints regarding the Brigada Eskwela activity, and the participants have so far been very cooperative.
As of Monday, August 15, Bongo said they are on final touch-ups, which include ensuring that classrooms and facilities observe proper health standards and protocols for the student's protection.
They are also waiting for the delivery of some learning modules that students will be using for the resumption of classes.
As added preparation, the DepEd-Mandaue Division launched "Oplan Balik Eskwela" on Monday, August 15, where they organized a Balik Eskwela task force to answer all the queries of parents and other education personnel for the upcoming opening of classes.
Bongo said Mandaue has about 89 schools (both elementary and high school) participating for this school year -- 45 public schools, 43 private, and the semi-private Mandaue City College, which handles grade 12 students.
Classroom repairs
Bongo said all of these schools are now almost a hundred percent ready except for the 14 schools in barangays Tingub, Casili, Maguikay, Umapad, Banilad, Cabancalan II, Tabok I and II, Bakilid, Canduman, Labogon and Pagsabungan whose classrooms were damaged by Typhoon Odette, which hit Cebu in December 2021.
Earlier, Mandaue City Government's local school board (LSB) allotted P20 million for the classroom repairs.
Bongo reiterated that these Odette-affected schools are still about 75 percent operational.
She said they have already processed the programs of work for the damaged classrooms so the repair can start and that they will hopefully be 100 percent operational by November for the full implementation of face-to-face classes.
On July 12, DepEd announced the resumption of the five-day face-to-face classes in November for all public and private schools regardless of the Covid-19 alert status.
The announcement came after Vice President Sara Duterte-Carpio, who currently heads the DepEd, said that distance or remote education had been a dismal failure in the students' learning.
Vaccination
Bongo said proof of Covid-19 vaccination will not be required for both school personnel and students once the classes start, but DepEd still encouraged those who have not yet been vaccinated to have themselves inoculated.
For students, Bongo said they would soon have counseling from the Department of Health (DOH) to inform them of the benefits of having a vaccination.
Enrollees
Lawyer Marinel Oro, DepEd-Division of Mandaue public information officer, said there are about 65,109 enrollees this year (55,000 from public schools and 7,000 from private schools).
Oro said these numbers are not yet final as they are expecting more enrollees to come, especially during the first week of classes.
Last school year (2021 to 2022), Oro said they gathered a total of 90,734 enrollees for both public and private schools in Mandaue City. (HIC)