A GROUP of teachers yesterday urged the Department of Education to ensure the safety of teachers and students amid the persistent threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic before ordering the return of face-to-face classes.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers also urged Vice President and DepEd Secretary Sara Duterte to provide additional funding to schools to augment their maintenance and operating budget so they could prepare classrooms, install handwashing facilities, and provide adequate supplies and equipment for school clinics.
Last Tuesday, Malacanang announced plans to start a phased in-person classes by September this year and a 100 percent return to face-to-face classes by November.
“It would be hard for students, teachers, and parents to all go to school and encounter another surge of COVID-19, so we need to be careful and prepared,” said Vladimir Quetua, ACT chairperson.
He also cited a survey of the Movement for Safe, Equitable, Quality, and Relevant (SEQuRe) Education, on the initial face-to-face classes already held that the DepEd “has a long way to go if they are to open all the schools for 100% face-to-face learning.”
“According to the SEQure survey, government funding and support were ‘insufficient’ which compelled 59 to 83 percent of teacher-respondents to ‘spend out-of-pocket to prepare schools and classrooms for safe reopening, while some important safety measures were still not sufficiently installed,’” he added.
Queta said the DepEd must deploy additional teachers to enable schools to implement the ideal class size of maximum of 35 students, ensure the availability of nurses and utility personnel, ensure the health protection and benefits of teachers and non-teaching staff, free medical check-up and treatment, and 15-day sick leave for teachers.
Quetua also said the DepEd must provide additional compensation for teaching overload and non-teaching duties for teachers, as well as overtime for teachers and employees, and conduct a learning assessment of students all over the country to guide the curriculum adjustments for the education recovery program.
“These are some of the requisites for a safe back-to-school program this year because we need to address the ‘old normal’ problems to enable a safe 100 percent school reopening,” Quetua added.
Another teachers group, the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition, echoed the same recommendations to the DepEd.
“We need to ensure that our learners and teachers are safe, and it would require several adjustments especially in class size and physical facilities,” TDC Chairperson Benjo Basas said, adding he and other TDC officials are hoping to hold a dialogue with Duterte to discuss the matter.
“Definitely, we’ll be needing more classrooms and more teachers to effectively handle the delivery of education service, post pandemic,” Basas added.
The National Parents-Teacher Association Federation also said the government must ensure that all students, teachers and school administrators be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before a return to in-person learning.
The group’s secretary general, Lito Senieto, said schools must also have isolation facilities and nurses to look after sick students.
The DepEd earlier said students who want to attend face-to-face classes are not required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 although teachers are obligated to get inoculated if they will physically report to schools.
The DepEd allowed the gradual resumption of face-to-face classes in late 2021.
As of June 16, 32,787 or 72.66 percent of public schools in the country have started conducting face-to-face classes while 1,063 private schools are implementing in-person classes, equivalent to just 8.60 percent of the total number.
Meanwhile, the DepEd will issue the corresponding department order on the resumption of full face-to-face classes in November as the government, along with health experts, continue to discuss health precautions needed such as the vaccination of students.
“It (vaccination) is an essential part of returning face-to-face classes. We will discuss this further…we’re expecting the Department of Education to issue their department order pursuant to face-to-face and the additional announcement also from the Department of Health on the vaccination program,” Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said yesterday.
School year 2022-2023 is expected to open in August where hybrid face-to-face classes – or a combination of several days of online classes and several days of in-person classes in a week — are expected to be implemented in most schools. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
