MANILA, Philippines — Schools with medicine and allied health science programs are set to be inspected for the readiness of their facilities to hold limited face-to-face classes in the middle of the ongoing semester of academic year 2020-2021.
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chairman J. Prospero de Vera III said at yesterday’s Laging Handa virtual press briefing that the CHED will be joined in this endeavor by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).
Primarily, they will check the retrofitting of school buildings, facilities and classrooms – including hallways, stairs and elevators – to ensure compliance with health and physical distancing protocols.
He said there are also a number of limitations to be imposed by the government on schools embarking on limited face-to-face classes.
“Perhaps, within the next two to three weeks, we’d know how many schools will be approved (for face-to-face classes,” De Vera said.
The CHED clarified that students’ attendance of face-to-face classes is not mandatory and that schools should prepare alternative delivery of education to students who refuse to be physically present in class.
Also, De Vera said that only students aged 20 years and above are allowed to attend the face-to-face classes.
“This means that these are students who are on their 3rd to 4th year (in the college program),” De Vera told the briefing led by Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Martin Andanar.
He added that the face-to-face classes should only be for subjects that cannot be delivered virtually.