A Jesuit school in Mindanao announced that it will start the school year with “new normal” learning arrangements due to the threat of the new coronavirus disease.
Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan announced that it will open its grade school, junior and senior high school and college campuses in July.
For school year 2020-2021, the university will be introducing “flexible learning arrangements” designed to adjust to the public health crisis.
Father Roberto Yap, SJ, university president, said the school will work on “Home-Based Learning” before shifting to “Cautious Return to On-Campus Learning” once quarantine protocols are lifted.
Home-based learning will consist of portable learning packets (hard and soft copies), online learning (synchronous and asynchronous), and online student support.
Courses that cannot be delivered through home-based learning will be postponed to a later time.
Father Yap said the “cautious return to on-campus learning” will strictly enforce the observance of physical distancing, limited number of students in a classroom, safety and sanitary precautions, and limited large gatherings.
Graduate school and professional schools of law and medicine will start in August and will end in May the following year.
The school also announced that there will be no tuition increases for the school year and some miscellaneous fees will be reduced “in view of flexible learning.”
“We will also work hard to increase our scholarship and financial aid programs,” said the priest, adding that these measures are taken to help parents cope with the present crisis.
“It will be an extraordinary school year for all of us, with many ad hoc arrangements that will require a lot of patience, generosity, and creativity,” said Father Yap.
