The Department of Education (DepED) said Tuesday the full implementation of face-to-face classes will start in the 2022-2023 school year.

“As I said…we will be fully operational in terms of face-to-face depending on the advice of the Department of Health, the consent and the participation of the local government units, and most important of all, the consent and the participation of the parents,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones said at the Duterte Legacy Summit on Tuesday.

Briones said as of May, 34,238 schools are nominated to have face-to-face classes, while 300,000 public schools are having face-to-face classes. She added that 918 private schools have opened.

A total of 28,033,530 students were enrolled students for next school year, the highest since 2016, according to Briones.

She said the Philippines was able to continue educating children despite closure of physical schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 through blended learning.

”During the first year of the pandemic, we opened in October after making adjustments to the curriculum and then the next year, we opened in September,” she said.

In October 2020, DepEd  implemented blended learning. This combined teaching methods using online classes, modules, and television.

DepEd was also able to establish an alternative learning system (ALS) for people who are unable to attend classes regularly, she added.

Briones said DepEd reached several underserved schools through its Last Mile Schools program which aims to “address the gaps and resources in facilities”.

Under the program, the department was able to distribute 46,757 laptops, 33, 709 tablets, and 14,401 televisions to remote schools.

Briones urged the next administration to continue the improvements they have started, including blended learning and digitalization.

“And so the challenge in education which we look forward to be continued would be the combination of blended learning, digitalization, preparing for the future, but at the same time, never forgetting that we are humans,” she said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS