ONLY students who are taking courses in medicine, nursing, medical technology, medical laboratory science, physical therapy, midwifery, and public health in schools under General Community Quarantine and modified GCQ will be allowed to participate in face-to-face classes, based on the guidelines issued by the Commission on Higher Education and the Department of Health.

The two agencies issued Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2021-001 to guide  higher education institutions intending to hold limited physical classes.

Under the circular, the subjects or courses that shall be allowed for face-to-face delivery “are delimited to specialized laboratory courses or hospital-based clinical clerkship/internship/practicum, including clinical rotations for post graduate medical interns.”

It stressed, however that “interns shall not be allowed to rotate in the emergency room, out-patient department, and Covid wards, but only be allowed to rotate in non-Covid units.”

Higher educational institutions will be allowed to hold face-to-face classes if they will comply with health and safety protocols, can retrofit their facilities, and get the support of their stakeholders.

“This Joint Memorandum Circular is cognizant of the mandates of Republic Act 11332 otherwise known as the ‘Mandatory Reporting of Notifiable Diseases and Health Events of Public Health Concern Act’, wherein public health authorities are given the statutory and regulatory authority to mandate response activities on the part of schools, which can include the regulation of physical classes, to control the further spread of infection, outbreaks, or epidemics and prevent re-occurence,” the two agencies said.

Among the schools that have been allowed to hold limited face-to-face classes are the University of the Philippines-Manila, Ateneo de Manila University, and the Our Lady of Fatima University in Valenzuela City.