Karla Henry, Mayor Michael Rama’s spokesperson, announces that two night high schools in Cebu City — the Mambaling Night High School and the Labangon Night High School have been given the safety seal of the Department of Education in Central Visayas. | screen grab from recent Karla Henry interview
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Two public schools in Cebu City are deemed safe for the return of face-to-face (F2F) classes.
The Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7) awarded the safety seal to the Mambaling Night High School and Labangon Night High School.
Karla Henry, spokesperson of Mayor Michael Rama, said the safety seals meant that the schools were ready for F2F classes with complete compliance to DepEd and Department of Health (DOH) requirements.
DepEd-7 Director Salustiano Jimenez said the safety seals would allow the school to proceed with the in-person classes in the next school year as well.
“Education is one of the paramount concerns ofthe city government, considering that our schoolchildren spent their two years at home in a blended learning modality which has posed danger to their health and well-being,” Henry noted.
DepEd urged schools to resume their face-to-face classes as soon as they could, given that Cebu City has since been downgraded to Alert Level 1, the most relaxed quarantine status.
This means that schools are now free to fully open under Alert Level 1, subject to DepEd’s program and policies on resumption of limited face-to-face classes, and with shared responsibility to be exercised by the schoolchildren, their parents, teachers, school administrators, and the community.
Mayor Rama’s urge for in-person classes to resume comes following his efforts to open up the city’s economy and allow big social events to take place as part of adapting to the better normal.
“This is to show the city government’s efforts to reopen the city with Mayor Rama’s guidance and leadership. We are slowly seeing the positive impact of these reopening efforts to the economy and to the Cebuanos in general,” Henry said.
Henry said that all schools including private schools were encouraged to get the safety seal to put at ease the parents who would be sending their children back to school.
The city government continues to work closely with the DepEd for the possible opening of more Cebu City public schools that get endorsement from DepEd-7 to proceed with in-person classes.
DepEd’s Jimenez said the endorsement process would take some time, pending validation of schools’ physical condition and its capability to resume the face-to-face teaching modality.
Considering that at least 112 schools in the city have been damaged by Typhoon Odette, Henry said the mayor had already ordered an inventory of all public schools in the city for assessment.
She said a budget would be allocated for the rehabilitation of the schools.
“He has already wanted a full investigation on which schools that need repair so they can be properly ready for the next school year. The mayor has already promised a budget set aside for the school repairs,” said Henry.
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