More than two years after COVID-19 began, the schools in the Philippines welcomed students for their first in-person classes on Monday, August 22nd. Continual lockdowns, prompted by the frequent rise in COVID-19 cases, kept students in primary and secondary classes out of their classrooms. However, the country is now willing to tackle the storm and bring its students back.
In the first phase, only 24,000 public schools will open their doors to their students for in-person classes five times per week. Meanwhile, the remaining schools will use a hybrid structure of in-person and virtual classes to teach the students. This arrangement is expected to continue until November 2nd, after which all private and public students must conduct only in-person classes for all their students.
While the news is cheerful for the students and parents, the school administrators are having a tough time getting the infrastructure ready. Reportedly, after a potent earthquake rocked the Philippines last month, more than 1,000 schools have suffered structural damage.
