By Joyce Ann L. Rocamora / Philippine News Agency
The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) announced Friday (Nov. 5) that limited in-person classes in all degree programs have been allowed for up to 50% capacity in areas under Alert Level 2.
CHED Chairperson J. Prospero de Vera III said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) gave the green light on Nov. 4 provided the schools follow these conditions:
– Students, faculty, and employees must be vaccinated;
– The local government is okay with it; and
– Their facilities have been retrofitted and inspected.
“In the IATF, we discussed the other day that in places where it is already Alert Level 2 we will allow now face-to-face up to 50% capacity in all degree programs,” de Vera said in a speech at the ceremonial vaccination in Palawan State University.
“[S]o na-approve po sa IATF kahapon, that [Alert Level 2] is [the] equivalent of MGCQ [modified general community quarantine] areas,” he added.
De Vera said these limited in-person classes are likely to start in areas where the vaccination rate is high such as Metro Manila universities.
“So we ask everyone to get vaccinated so that we have now other options to open our classrooms and so that we can slowly bring back our students and get them to go to their schools,” he said.
More than a hundred higher education institutions were previously allowed to resume face-to-face classes for medicine and allied health sciences.
Last September, President Rodrigo Duterte approved its expansion for engineering and technology, hotel and restaurant management, tourism and travel management, marine engineering, and marine transportation courses. (PNA) – jlo
