CHED Chair de Vera clarifies policy on 50% limited f2f classes
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Prospero E. de Vera III shed a light on limited face-to-face classes in all degree programs for schools located in areas under Alert Level 2 with up to 50% capacity of the classroom facilities.
The clarification has been made during the press conference on Wednesday, December 1, at Tacloban City, following claims that the 50% pertains to the half of the class size.
“If you have 50 students and you have a designated classroom which can accommodate 60 students, then you can bring 30 of them given that they are vaccinated and are following the safety protocols,” Chair de Vera pointed out.
The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) has given its go signal to gradually open limited face-to-face classes in which three requirements are needed to comply: students, faculty and staff vaccination rate is high, coordination with the local government units, and retrofitting of facilities.
Readiness of SLSU
The Southern Leyte State University (SLSU) has applied for the conduct of the limited face-to-face classes for the second semester of the academic year 2021-2022 intended for the laboratory subjects of Industrial Technology, Food Technology, Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, and Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management.
After Chair de Vera made a statement that encourages universities and colleges to act as vaccination centers and mobilize students to get vaccinated, SLSU conducted a Vaccine Awareness Acceleration Campaign on November 5 to create awareness for faculty, staff, and students on the importance of being vaccinated to be able to participate in the limited face-to-face classes.
On November 9, classroom facilities in SLSU Main Campus already underwent an ocular inspection with the local government of Sogod, Rural Health Unit (RHU) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), along with the university officials to identify the retrofitting designs for safety purposes which include improving ventilation systems to ensure air flow.
Boarding houses have also gone through assessments by the university officials along with the concerned government agencies to have them ready for occupancy for the students and to ensure that the establishments are following the health protocols implemented by the local IATF. The university and the owners of the boarding houses made an agreement to closely monitor the whereabouts of the students to ensure safety.
In Hinunangan and San Juan Campuses, the university officials had a dialogue with the respective local government units on December 7, attended by the representatives from the local IATF, RHU, and PNP to discuss the gradual reopening of classes in January 2022. University officials will also visit SLSU campuses in Maasin City, Bontoc and Tomas Oppus to also discuss the same thing in preparation for limited face-to-face classes.
Likewise, preparations for the limited face-to-face classes shall include installation of the foot bath and washing facilities in all the buildings of the campus, acquisition of thermal scanners, retrofitting of the laboratory rooms, posting of signage in every laboratory room and in all conspicuous places in the library and food court where students may congregate.
For the time being, the limited face-to-face classes will prioritize the junior and senior students especially the graduating ones. Although the vaccines are now available for those below 18 years old, vaccinated freshmen and sophomore students shall need to wait for a little while as adjustments will happen later on.
As recommended by CHED, SLSU will employ the 4-10 attendance scheme where students will attend laboratory classes for 4 straight days and 10 days for flexible learning for lecture classes at home. Each college will arrange the schedule and the list of the students who will attend a specific series of classes to ensure the safety of students and faculty.
Are F2F classes discriminatory to unvaccinated?
During the press conference, Chair de Vera made clear that the decision to limit the participation of face-to-face learning in tertiary education only for fully-vaccinated instructors and students is not discriminatory since unvaccinated faculty members and students can still participate online.
“This is not discriminatory because unvaccinated education personnel can still work from home and unvaccinated students can do the online classes,” Chair de Vera said, highlighting that it’s dangerous to bring vaccinated and unvaccinated faculty, staff, and students together in place.
CHED pushed in IATF the reclassification of education personnel from B1 to A4 to be prioritized and be vaccinated early on while eyeing to reopen face-to-face classes.
Initially, the Philippine government has identified the detailed priority population in its COVID-19 vaccination program where teachers and social workers were classified as B1 and frontline personnel in essential sectors including uniformed personnel and those in working sectors identified by the IATF as essential during ECQ were classified as A4.
According to Chair de Vera, the vaccination rate of education personnel nationwide reaches 82% while at least 70% vaccination in all regions. For students, the vaccination coverage is 45.91% from 30% recorded in October prior to the implementation of the three-day vaccination drive.
CHED Chair de Vera announced that another vaccination drive shall be done in mid-December to hopefully reach levels of herd immunity at least for faculty and staff, and students.
Chair de Vera, along with the Executive Director of UniFast Atty. Ryan Estevez, arrived in Eastern Visayas in the morning of December 1, to attend the Gawad Parangal that recognizes state universities and colleges, and private higher education institutions in the region with their outstanding achievements, and to lead the Padyak initiative of CHED to visit Tertiary Education Subsidy (TES) beneficiaries while riding a bicycle from Baybay City to Ormoc City.