After two academic years without face-to-face classes, Philippine schools have started to reopen their campuses as the COVID-19 outbreak begins to fade. Empty rooms, hallways, and corridors of schools have now regained their life as students came back to their campuses after 2 long years of flexible learning, like greeting an old friend after a long, long time.

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Over the past few years, the COVID-19 pandemic has affected not only the country but also the whole world. On December 31, 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) received an initial report about COVID-19, and on January 30, 2020, the WHO declared the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. The novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) first emerged in Wuhan, China, and eventually affected different parts of the world.

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With the increasing cases of COVID-19 in the year 2021, the lockdown in the country was implemented, causing a lot of negative effects on people–most especially on students.  Students are prohibited from going to school which resulted in classes being held online. But as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic were slowly mitigated, the resumption of face-to-face classes has been approved.

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The mandatory face-to-face classes began last November 2022 as it was signed by Vice President and Department of Education Secretary Sara Duterte. It is to allow public and private schools to conduct face-to-face classes or continue holding their blended learning modality. This became a way for students and teachers to embrace the new normal with, of course, safety in mind.

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The Tarlac Agricultural University Laboratory School (TAU-LS) started its hybrid learning on September 5, 2022, implementing a schedule of 2-day face-to-face and 3-day online classes, and 3-day face-to-face and 2-day face-to-face for some. This lasted for a few weeks as students needed to adjust after a 2-year face-to-face break. Eventually, on November 7, 2022, the TAU-LS started to conduct their full face-to-face classes.

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Moreover, vaccines for the COVID-19 virus were given to students to protect them from the virus.

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As the world is still suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, people are reminded to follow proper health protocols, such as wearing facemasks even though it is optional since it provides extra protection, sanitizing hands after holding or even when in contact with other people since the virus is still there, and observing social distancing. These are the basic and important things to know to keep a safe environment not only for the students but for everyone.