MANILA, Philippines – The Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) is eyeing to resume classes starting June, its chief Isidro Lapeña said Thursday, May 21.

Lapeña said at the marathon Senate hearing that they were planning to do hybrid classes, as part of their measures against the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“The object of this operations plan is to shift from traditional face-to-face training delivery mode to online, or combined online and face-to-face delivery mode,” Lapeña said.

“This will be compliant [with] the regulation that is being required by the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) and the Department of Health,” the TESDA chief added.

The proposal, which will cover the areas under general community quarantine, is still subject to the approval of the IATF.

TESDA has been offering vocational courses online since 2012. During the first two weeks of the lockdown in March, close to 20,000 enrollees signed up for the online classes.

Mass gatherings are not allowed under the enhanced modified quarantine and the modified ECQ. Under general community quarantine (GCQ), gatherings are restricted to 10 people. (READ: ECQ, MECQ, GCQ, MGCQ: Who can go where?)

Schools are still not allowed to operate even during GCQ, allowing only a skeleton workforce to process documents or prepare for the upcoming semester. – Rappler.com