The city government of Baguio plans to ask the Commission on Higher Education to defer its plan of allowing a higher learning education institution from holding limited face-to-face classes.
Atty. Althea Alberto, executive assistant IV of the City Mayor’s Office, said the plan to ask CHED to defer conduct of face-to-face classes came up because of the threat of the Delta variant, said to be more severe and more transmissible.
Among the universities in the city, the CHED allowed Saint Louis University to bring their students enrolled in medical and allied health programs for hands-on training and laboratory classes in a limited face-to-face system.
She added the suggestion came up because when CHED approved the application of SLU to hold limited face-to-face classes, there were no Delta and Lambda variants yet.
But Alberto said the city’s move is merely a proposal and it recognizes that higher education institutions that were allowed to hold limited face-to-face classes have complied with the standards imposed by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
SLU is one of the 24 universities all over the country that were allowed to hold limited face-to-face classes starting the second semester of school year 2020-2021.
The CHED said the higher education institutions were allowed as they “have passed stringent retrofitting and health standards imposed by CHED, the Department of Health, and the IATF-EID.
The city government has intensified measures in anticipation of the surge in Covid-19 cases due to the Delta variant.
Aside from intensifying border controls, the city is stockpiling oxygen tanks and essential medicines, and fast-tracking the vaccination of its eligible population. – Jane B. Cadalig
April 20, 2024
