Answer: At a small corner of a principal's office in a public elementary school in Laguna are a wooden table and two plastic chairs reserved for emergency health consultations between a teacher and an ill student. The makeshift clinic, as Dana* described it, has no bed, much less a nurse, and only a first aid kit pouch.
Dana, a teacher and also the Red Cross coordinator of the school, said that this would be a problem when face-to-face classes resume in 2021.
Nearly 10 months into the pandemic, government officials considered the proposed resumption of face-to-face classes as they expressed apprehensions about the ability of students – especially those unable to take online classes – to retain and process knowledge from the current modes of distance learning. (READ: FAST FACTS: DepEd’s distance learning)
Several groups have denounced the plan, saying that opening classrooms in the middle of a still untamed pandemic is dangerous, given the lack of health facilities in schools.
Meanwhile, the Department of Health (DOH), said that it supports face-to-face classes in low-risk areas, or areas where the pandemic is under control.
The DOH also said that health facilities in schools should be made available in compliance with minimum health standards, which include frequent handwashing and physical distancing.
Explanation: On December 14, Malacañang announced that President Rodrigo Duterte had approved a trial run of face-to-face classes in areas deemed "low risk" for COVID-19
