THE successive flooding in Cebu City have now become a concern for the Department of Education (DepEd) as students are set to return to school for the opening of classes on Monday, Aug. 22, 2022.DepEd Cebu City Division assistant schools superintendent Bernadette Susvilla told SunStar Cebu Thursday, Aug. 18 that schools are now preparing contingency plans in the event heavy rains persist during school days.According to Susvilla, the DepEd has already achieved a 100 percent enrollment rate in public schools.Around 180,000 public school students have already been enrolled and this number could still increase in the following days, she said.“We have required them to create an action plan together with contingency plans. It is considered that natural calamities like typhoons have become part of their plans. They have actions and interventions should these things happen,” said Susvilla in a mix of Cebuano and English.Susvilla said no schools in Cebu City are located within disaster-prone areas but flooding can still occur, especially during heavy rains.School heads can also decide whether or not classes should be suspended due to intermittent weather or impending calamities, she said.The DepEd has asked the City Government if it can deploy vehicles like buses during heavy rains to ferry students and teachers who might get stranded.Limited F2F classAt the start of classes, face-to-face classes will still limited because of the ongoing threat of Covid-19 pandemic.Only 50 percent or 25 to 30 students will be allowed inside each of the classrooms. The DepEd has devised a shifting schedule so that all students can experience in-person learning.“The children are excited to go back to face-to-face classes and the parents have been oriented as to how we will modify the class schedules,” said Susvilla.A total of 746 classrooms still need to be repaired after sustaining damage from Typhoon Odette (Rai) last Dec. 16, 2021.Susvilla said the recent implementation of Brigada Eskwela allowed each school to look for stakeholders who will shoulder the cost of the repairs of damaged facilities.