ABOUT 27 percent of public school teachers in Bacolod City are still unvaccinated against coronavirus disease (Covid-19), an official of the Department of Education (DepEd) said.
DepEd Schools Division of Bacolod Superintendent Gladys Amylaine Sales said that about 73 percent of public school teachers have been vaccinated as of December 1, 2021.
Sales said if the National Inter-Agency Task Force (NIATF) will impose its guidelines on requiring unvaccinated individuals to submit its negative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test result every two weeks, they have no choice but to also require the teachers.
“We will do this because we want to protect our students against Covid-19,” she said, adding that “we are doing this for our children so if teachers will not comply, they should face the consequence.”
The official pointed out that the government also respects their decision, but they should also face the consequences in their work as teachers.
In November, more than 1,000 teachers in Bacolod City still failed to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
“They should avail the Covid-19 vaccine because we are also requiring our students to get vaccinated,” Sales said.
She added that “this is part of our preparation for the face-to-face (F2F) classes and we want to ensure the safety of everybody here.”
For now, Sale said, the unvaccinated teachers are allowed to work from home.
But once full F2F classes resume, they should choose to avail the Covid-19 vaccine or to submit the negative RT-PCR test result every two weeks at their own expense.
Sales lamented that there were some teachers who opted to resign from their work because of vaccination issues.
“We respect their decision, but we are only doing this for the safety of everybody so we should comply,” she added.