Despite COVID threat, students return to school

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DESPITE the continued threat of COVID-19, more than 27 million students from kindergarten to senior high school return to classes today, Monday, amid tight security, concerns on facilities, and the safety of teachers and students involved in face-to-face classes.

Senate majority leader Joel Villanueva said the Department of Education’s “all systems go” pronouncement on its readiness for today’s reopening of classes should be matched with readiness on the ground, especially health protocols.

Data provided by the DedEd showed that only 5.3 million of the total number of enrollees have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with 400,000 more having received just the first dose of vaccines.

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DepEd Undersecretary Epimaco Densing III said as of last Saturday, there are still 37,000 unvaccinated grade school teachers nationwide. Overall, a total of 921,925 teachers and non-teaching staff of public and private schools out of the 1,000,940 total number are fully inoculated.

DepEd spokesperson Michael Tan Poa said unvaccinated teachers will be allowed to report to school since vaccination is not mandatory.

Poa said 27,691,191 have enrolled as of last Friday.

“The number is still increasing but that’s the number of students expected to go back to school, subject to the modalities to be implemented by the schools,” Poa said yesterday.

Poa said they expect more enrollees today, the last day of enrollment for the school year. The DepEd has set a target of 28.6 million enrollees from kindergarten to senior high school this school year.

Poa said at least 24,175 schools out of the 54,900 public and private campuses nationwide can hold in-person classes five days a week, while 29,721 schools will continue using blended learning and will hold face-to-face classes for at least three days a week.

Poa said the remaining 1,004 schools will be limited to distance or online learning.

Majority of private schools will continue blended learning (use of modules and online) until October 31.

DepEd Order No. 34 was issued last month by Vice President and concurrent Education Secretary Sara Duterte mandating all public and private schools nationwide to return to face-to-face learning by November 2.

Poa said the DepEd will use the transition period — from August 22 to November 2 — to check on schools still unprepared for in-person learning.

Poa said there are schools in the National Capital Region and Calabarzon that will hold double and even triple shifting of classes to accommodate the huge number of students.

DepEd data showed that as of August 20, Calabarzon has the highest number of enrollees with 3,768,357 while NCR reported 2,694,130.

UNVACCINATED STUDENTS

Poa said unvaccinated students can attend classes as part of the DepEd’s No Discrimination Policy in schools. But he stressed that schools are mandated to adhere to minimum health protocols as prescribed by the Department of Health, such as wearing of face masks and practicing minimum physical distancing.

“We have instructed our school officials to strictly observe minimum health and safety standards,” Poa said, adding the DepEd is coordinating with the DOH to roll out mobile COVID-19 vaccinations and counselling sessions to encourage teachers and students to be vaccinated.

In a statement, Villanueva said: “The era of missing classrooms, sharing tables and chairs, and holding classes under the shade of trees must no longer happen. We expect our students to have their classes in comfortable classrooms and with complete learning materials as promised by DepEd.”

Villanueva added that the opening of the new school year also brings to focus the hardships of the teachers.

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“A salary upgrade is ideal which we will continue to push.  But a realistic measure that may be immediately addressed would be an increase in (the) allowance of public school teachers, including those in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and state-run technical vocational institutions (TVIs),” Villanueva said.

“Teachers are skilled professionals doing increasingly complex and challenging work. Outside of their academic tasks, we know of teachers who end up spending their own money to shoulder classroom-related expenses and to assist needy students so they continue to be in school,” he added.

He said there are two proposed measures filed in the Senate “to alleviate the condition of the educators, including the proposal to provide additional grocery and transportation allowance for teaching and non-teaching personnel in public basic education school (Senate Bill No. 564), and also for teaching personnel in State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) and Technical and Vocational Institutions (TVIs) [Senate Bill No. 565].

“We must pay our teachers for what they are worth given the responsibility they carry on their shoulders – our children’s learning and future,” he added.

PASIG FERRY SERVICE

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority yesterday touted its Pasig River Ferry Service as an alternative mode of transport for the public, especially students returning to classes. MMDA acting chairman Carlo Dimayuga III said the agency’s ferry service is free.

Dimayuga said the ferry service operates 13 stations in the cities of Pasig, Makati, Mandaluyong and Manila. These stations are located at Pinagbuhatan, San Joaquin, Maybunga, and Kalawaan in Pasig, Guadalupe and Valenzuela in Makati, Hulo in Mandaluyong, and Sta. Ana, PUP, Lawton, Escolta, Lambingan, and Quinta in Manila.

The MMDA operates nine ferry boats for the Pasig river ferry service from 6 a.m.to 6 p.m. from Monday to Saturday. — With Raymond Africa 

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