The Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) on Wednesday said higher education institutions (HEIs) would not be required to hold face-to-face classes (F2F) this upcoming academic year.
In a virtual presser, CHEd Chairman Prospero de Vera III said HEIs had the authority to decide for themselves whether to hold F2F classes or not.
“We cannot require all schools to do face-to-face because there are schools that have been doing flexible learning even before the pandemic,” he said.
“We cannot have (F2F) for all degree programs because the degree programs are constructed differently and also because many schools have gone ahead with online learning even before the pandemic,” he added.
De Vera’s statement came a day after the Department of Education (DepEd) announced it would require schools to implement full F2F classes for basic education by Nov. 2.
“Some degree programs really need a lot of F2F, especially skills-based programs, while other programs can be delivered by flexible learning so we are leaving it to the universities to decide what is the appropriate mix,” de Vera said. John Ezekiel J. Hirro