CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga (PIA) -- Department of Education (DepEd) reiterated that COVID-19 vaccination is a key component for the resumption of face-to-face classes.

With this, DepEd Regional Director May Eclar urges the teachers to get vaccinated now that the vaccine prioritization for teaching and non-teaching personnel has already been adjusted from category B1 to A4.

“The vaccination for teaching and non-teaching staff is already ongoing. We consider vaccinated personnel in our criteria for our limited face-to-face classes. Many of our students really want to go back to the classroom, that is why we encourage our teachers to get vaccinated,” she said.

In Central Luzon, 9,086 teachers are already fully-vaccinated while 1,863 received their first dose as of July 2.

Relative to this, DepEd Region 3 is already looking for pilot schools for the possibility of limited face-to-face classes.

“We already have plans, and we are conducting studies for face-to-face classes so that if given the go signal, we have already prepared the schools,” Eclar shared.

However, several factors still need to be considered including number of active COVID-19 cases.

Despite this, Eclar said they are eyeing for a surge in the number of enrollees for the school year 2021-2022.

“Based on our records, the number of our enrollees did not decline despite the pandemic. What we have seen is that there is a decrease in the number of enrollees in private schools as many have closed temporarily; but still, their students moved to public schools,” she explained.

She said that the closure of some schools is due to difficulties in adjusting with, and completing the requirements needed to operate the new mode of learning set up.

Currently, Eclar said that 60 percent of the basic education schools in the region are offering modular learning through purely printed modules; while 40 percent have adapted the blended which is a combination of modular, digital, radio-based, and television learning. (MJSC/Jag Lyra D. Costamero-PIA 3)