A hundred public schools nationwide will let students in for face-to-face classes today, making the Philippines the last country in the world to do so after more than a year of distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Sept. 8 report by the United Nations Children’s Fund identified the Philippines and Venezuela as the two remaining countries that have yet to return to in-person classes. On Oct. 25, Venezuela resumed face-to-face classes for its more than 11 million students.
Diana Cabilic, a Grade 2 teacher from Longos Elementary School (LES) in Alaminos, Pangasinan province, feels both excited and nervous.
“I will [now] be able to focus my attention on the students and their studies, but somehow I am also nervous because I was not able to teach [in person] for one year,” she told the Inquirer on Saturday.
Cabilic said that even parents, who have been clamoring to have face-to-face classes again, were thankful for LES being chosen as one of the pilot schools.
During the pandemic, their school division decided to conduct modular distance learning for LES because the students could not afford to have their own gadgets needed for online learning.
Cabilic said it was very challenging to teach under this mode because parents found it difficult to help the learners since they have their own jobs or have a lot of kids who were studying. (© Philippine Daily Inquirer News)
