The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) now allows all students, teachers, and school personnel in colleges and universities to attend in-person classes regardless of their vaccination status.
CHED chairman Prospero de Vera announced the scrapping of the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for face-to-face classes in a press conference on Monday, August 29.
Prior to this development, the CHED released a memorandum earlier in March that stated that unvaccinated students could only continue their education through flexible learning or the combined use of both online and offline modalities.
The same CHED memorandum also requires colleges and universities to retrofit facilities to be protected from COVID-19 and to comply with minimum public health standards.
Only 3,145,883 tertiary students have been immunized against the viral respiratory disease while 946,345 were still unvaccinated based on CHED data as of August 25.
In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Philippine schools to close and transition to distance learning. Face-to-face classes gradually resumed since last year as the government relaxed some pandemic restrictions.
Thumbnail photo made via Canva
