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Students, all wearing face masks, queued to enter their
classrooms and attended flag raising ceremonies in their
schoolyards across the Southeast Asian country as the government
phases out remote learning.
"For two years, we longed for face-to-face classes so even if
there's a flood, we will continue our lessons," said school
teacher Mylene Ambrocio, 37, as she stook in ankle-deep water in
a classroom in Pampanga province north of the capital. "I am
happy to see the children face-to-face."
Precautions such as temperature checks, mandatory masks and
limits on the number of students per classroom remain in place.
The country's school closures due to the pandemic were among the
longest in the world, with reopening delayed by slow vaccine
rollouts and elections earlier this year.
In November, the education ministry pilot tested in-person
classes involving almost 300 schools but only this week
broadened that out to cover all schools as the new school year
got underway.
The education ministry currently mandates students learn
in-person for at least three days a week. Starting Nov. 2, all
schools should have transitioned to five days of in-person
classes, it said.
The shift to online classes, self-learning modules and
educational television and radio programmes has proven extremely
challenging for the country of more than 110 million where less
than a fifth of households have internet access and many lack
mobile devices.
Officials have underscored how important in-person learning is
for the economy to achieve long-term growth.
"We are committed to pursuing the country's full reopening,
including the return of face-to-face schooling to address the
learning losses and increase domestic activities," Economic
Planning Arsenio Balisacan said earlier this month.
(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales and Lisa Marie David; Editing
by Kanupriya Kapoor)
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