Senate pushes for 'pilot-testing' of limited physical classes in low-risk areas

By Ingrid Isabel Mendoza

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The Senate proposed to conduct an immediate "pilot-testing" of limited face-to-face classes in low-risk areas indicated by the Department of Education (DepEd) last March 2.

Senate Resolution No. 688 was filed by Senate President Vicente Sotto III and basic education committee chair Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian with six other senators. This resolution expressed the "sense of the Senate" to recommend the resumption of physical classes.

Through the pilot-testing, senators claimed that it would give DepEd an opportunity to "gather evidence on the ground" and come up with a framework safe enough to reopen schools.

In the resolution filed by Sotto, face-to-face classes should resume in areas which have few to zero Covid-19 cases while Gatchalian’s resolution called for an "immediate launch" of limited face-to-face classes through a dry run.

Gatchalian stated, as quoted by Inquirer, that this was a way to put the country’s education system "back on its tracks" and to "avert a prolonged learning loss."

“Para maliwanag… Baka isipin, pilot testing lang ang gusto natin. Hindi. Ang gusto natin talaga mag-face-to-face classes, mag-open na doon sa mga lugar na pwede,” Sotto said in Inquirer's report.

(So that it’s clear…They may think that we only want pilot testing. No. What we want is to resume face-to-face classes in selected areas.) This is a translation by Inquirer.

Gatchalian agreed with the statement and suggested that the reopening of classes should be done in phases to gather information and science-based evidence.

“The direction is to open our schools to face-to-face classes at one point in time. This is a very difficult decision because we need to gather data and analyze the data,” he said in Inquirer's article. “The first phase is to launch a pilot testing of schools and then the second phase is to prepare for an eventuality of face-to-face classes.”

Senators still emphasized that the pilot-testing would follow strict mitigation measures, health protocols, and guidelines that have been provided by the Department of Health and the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

DepEd had earlier proposed a similar solution in January but has been postponed due to the disapproval of President Rodrigo Duterte, when he announced that no face-to-face classes would start without the vaccine.

Limited face-to-face for medical and health allied programs

For medical and health allied programs, Duterte gave a go signal which allowed the resumption of limited face-to-face classes, specifically in areas under general community quarantine (GCQ) and modified GCQ areas.

The University of Santo Tomas’ (UST) proposal to resume limited face-to face classes for medical programs was approved by the Manila City government on Feb. 3.

Manila Mayor Isko Moreno had been reported to have met with university officials to discuss the measures, contingency plans, and health protocols to be conducted by the university.

Moreno also emphasized that students should not be forced to participate and that teachers would be among the priorities to receive Covid-19 vaccines once secured by the local government unit.

On March 3, four more medical schools in Manila were permitted to conduct limited face-to-face classes for health-allied programs and clerkship by Manila City Mayor, Isko Moreno.

The following were the schools announced by the Manila City Government, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM) College of Medicine, Metropolitan Medical Center College of Arts and Science, Chinese General Hospital Colleges and Manila Theological Center College of Medicine.

As of March 6, the Commission on Higher Education Chairman J. Prospero de Vera III permitted six higher education institutions which offer medical and health-allied programs to conduct limited face-to-face classes, as stated in an interview with The Philippine Star.

These were the University of the Philippines-Manila and University of Santo Tomas in Manila, University of the East Ramon Magsaysay Memorial Medical Center (UERM) in Quezon City, the Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health in Pasig, Our Lady of Fatima University (OLFU) in Valenzuela and St. Louis University in Baguio.