THE COMMISSION on Higher Education has allowed at least 118 higher education institutions to conduct limited face-to-face classes.

CHED Chief Prospero de Vera III said that some 13,000 students taking up Medicine, Nursing, Midwifery, Physical Therapy, Medical Technology, and Public Health will attend physical classes.

“There are over 400 applications received by the Commission. There are still pending applications because inspection for this is very meticulous and the approval is not very easy to get,” De Vera said.

“The commission, in coordination with the Department of Health, the Inter-Agency Task Force, and local government units inspected the retrofitted school facilities of the HEIs,” he added.

So far, CHED has received less than 1 percent or only 0.3 percent report of Covid19 infection among those holding in-person classes.

“The data consist 41 out of 9,700 students who tested positive for Covid19, and 15 out of over 1,000 faculty members who also contracted the disease. All have already recovered,” De Vera said.

He attributed the relatively low infection in schools to the strict compliance to guidelines and health protocols.

“Sa paniniwala ko, sa paniniwala ng CHED, mas health conscious iyong mga degree programs na iyan kasi kasama sa pag-aaral nila ang health,” he said.

“A total of 76 percent of students attending in-person classes have been vaccinated, while 96 percent of faculty members were also fully immunized,” he added.

De Vera also noted that CHED pushed for health-related programs to resume physical classes.

“We need to enable students to achieve key learning outcomes on specialized laboratory courses and hospital-based clinical clerkship/internship/practicum and to provide back-up or additional manpower to hospitals,” he said.

Meanwhile, De Vera urged HEIs who want to resume physical classes to start retrofitting their facilities.

“Iyong ibang schools, akala nila ‘pag nag-retrofit ka magastos. Sabi ko, hindi po. Akala nila ‘pag nag-retrofit, may engineering retrofitting. Sabi ko, ibig sabihin lang ng retrofit, how do you retrofit your facilities to make it safe for students, faculty, and administrators,” he explained.

“When you retrofit a classroom, the number of students allowed in the laboratories is dependent on the size of the room,” he added.