In what could be the government’s strongest push to mandate full in-person classes, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on Friday prohibited higher education institutions (HEI) to conduct fully remote classes.

HEIs can only conduct courses either fully in-person or through hybrid learning modality by the start of the second semester of academic year 2022 to 2023. Colleges and universities who seek to offer fully remote or online courses can only do so with the CHED’s approval, according to CHED Memorandum 16, signed by Chairperson Prospero De Vera III.

“In higher education, the disposition towards transitioning to the safe return to physical campuses and bringing back learners to school is gaining ground as a result of recovery measures from the impact of COVID-19,” read part of the memorandum approved on Friday, but only published today.

While UP, as the national university with institutional autonomy, may choose not to follow the directive, the CHED order is just the government’s latest signal of its drive to fully reopen schools, hoping that such a move could help the country’s economic recovery. Although UP in September said it will allow “100% face-to-face classes in all its undergraduate courses” by the next semester. 

The Department of Education (DepEd), meanwhile, has already begun mandatory in-person classes from kindergarten to senior high school since November 2, per DepEd Order 44, series of 2022.

Since the pandemic struck in March 2020, most schools have been forced to shift from onsite to remote learning modality. That shift, however, has proven to be untenable due to lacking tech and digital infrastructure. In UP, that meant that some students had to settle for printed course packs while some had to contend with bandwidth-heavy synchronous classes.

The CHED memorandum mandates that should HEIs decide to conduct hybrid classes, at least 50 percent of class hours must be conducted onsite. Likewise, on-the-job training, laboratory classes, and apprenticeships shall be “conducted primarily through onsite learning experiences.”

Graduate courses and transnational education must likewise seek approval from CHED if they intend to implement fully remote classes, in accordance with the Open Distance Learning Act and internal CHED policies, according to the directive.

From academic year 2020 to 2021, UP has mandated offering units to secure permits-to-operate first before the latter could open in-person classes. Now, the CHED memorandum mandates the opposite: remote classes must secure permits as onsite courses are now the default.

In a position paper submitted to the UP administration this year, the Rise for Education Alliance UP Diliman warned that a sudden shift to in-person classes may be detrimental to the students, especially without academic easing policies in place.

The group also called for arrangements to be put in place to address learning loss and gaps due to the pandemic, and alternative modes of learning, especially to working students and those with disability. Health insurance must also be provided to those who may contract COVID-19 during classes, read part of the paper.

The CHED memorandum, however, leaves it to the HEIs’ discretion how to implement their blanket policy.

“The impact of resuming onsite learning … cannot be overemphasized even in situations where emerging technologies, modalities, and methodologies of learning have been rapidly developed and implemented,” the memorandum read. ∙