All colleges and universities implementing in-person classes prior to the pandemic are going to use full
face-to-face learning for this coming academic year, Commission on Higher Education chairperson Prospero de Vera III said Monday.
De Vera said the schools continuing with distance learning are those that are doing remote learning prior to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“So, practically all our schools are doing some form of face-to-face classes depending on the options that they have chosen as a university pursuant to our policy of allowing them to do flexible learning,” De Vera said in a virtual press conference.
De Vera also said that unvaccinated students and faculty members are now allowed to attend face-to-face classes for this school year.
“We’re now allowing them (unvaccinated students and faculty members and employees) to now go face-to-face classes or to report back to work,” he said.
CHEd data showed that 90 percent of the higher education institutions personnel and close to 80 percent — or about 77 percent of the students — are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus disease.
“This is a result of an aggressive school-based vaccination program that started around September of 2020,” De Vera said.
“We’ve continuously urged our students, as I have gone across the country to participate in the vaccination program, so slowly we make our faculty and students conscious of the importance of vaccination,” the CHEd chair added.
He said the percentage of unvaccinated individuals, both faculty and students, is now significantly lower compared to last year when they issued the guidelines for face-to-face classes.
De Vera emphasized the importance of vaccination in the reopening of classes because when they issued the guidelines for face-to-face classes in all degree programs, the number of unvaccinated individuals is significant at that time, and they need to protect the unvaccinated individuals.
“So, the decision to allow only vaccinated students and faculty members in our higher education institutions is being done to protect the unvaccinated students and faculty members, because if we mix them the risk is higher for those who are unvaccinated,” he said.