EDUCATION Undersecretary Nepomuceno Malaluan yesterday said there were no reported adverse incidents during the first day of limited face-to-face classes implemented in 28 schools in the National Capital Region (NCR).

“So far, it has been smooth and we have officials of the department that are on the ground both in the central office and the regions,” Malaluan said in a Laging Handa public briefing.

“We have not received any adverse report as of now,” he added.

The DEPED recorded a 100 percent attendance or 2,300 learners present during the first day .

Personnel from DEPED Central and regional offices were on the ground to monitor the situation of the implementation on the first day face-to-face classes in NCR schools.

“We have been monitoring all day, so far, we have not received any adverse report on the first day of implementation of limited face-to-face classes in NCR,”Malaluan added.

He said the opening of the first day of limited physical classes in NCR went on smoothly and generally organized.

Amid the discovery of the Omicron variant, Malaluan stressed that there will be no changes on the guidelines of the face-to-face classes.

He said DEPED’s technical working group is constantly coordinating with the Department of Health and the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF-EID) on the developments of the new COVID-19 variant.

“DEPED will just wait on the update of the DOH and AITF about the Omicron variant, but rig now, we will still on our guidelines, if there will be changed on the alert level of covid-19 status, that the only time we will stop the face-to-face classes,” he said.

Meanwhile, Malaluan said there are now 300 elementary and high schools conducting face-to-face classes nationwide and at least 7,000 students are participating.

On November 15, DepEd began the limited in-person classes nationwide with 100 public schools and 18 private schools.

He said in the last two weeks since it was implemented, no COVID-19 cases have been recorded by the department.

He noted that no more schools will implement face-to-face classes due to the scheduled Christmas break on December 20.