THE Department of Education (DepEd) has announced that it will be requiring teachers who will be handling face-to-face classes to be vaccinated as a policy. The intention, of course, is to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus in schools to protect learners, employees, parents and teachers.
Those who aren’t keen on the idea of requiring vaccination reacted, but DepEd has given an official statement as approved by the Office of the President and is in line with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
DepEd has emphasized that the policy does not and is not intended to unjustly discriminate against any employee who chooses not to be vaccinated.
An employee who is not vaccinated will not be terminated on the sole ground of being unvaccinated. This is contrary to others’ conclusion that once they are not vaccinated, they will lose their work or they will no longer work.
An unvaccinated employee is obliged to render work and receive compensation based on applicable alternative work arrangements (AWA).
The AWA has been implemented since 2020 at the start of the pandemic and the Civil Service Commission has identified some work arrangements. The work-from-home scheme has been implemented since then.
But the pilot implementation of face-to-face classes on November 15, 2021 in 287 schools all over the country has included vaccination of all teachers and employees as one of the qualifications. So, the 2,969 teachers from all these schools were vaccinated.
Just recently, President Rodrigo R. Duterte has expressed his strong support for the expansion of the limited face-to-face classes. This means more schools will implement face-to-face classes.
The pilot implementation from November 15 to December 20, 2021 was deemed successful as there was no recorded confirmed Covid-19 case among the learners, and based on the evaluation conducted, there was a high level of attendance and performance among learners.
The expansion will not start immediately as the country is now experiencing an alarming surge of the virus. In fact, DepEd has issued a memorandum reiterating the policy on academic ease and allowing the suspension of classes.
The regional offices and schools division offices can exercise discretion in suspending classes and other teaching-related activities as long as it will not exceed two weeks to avoid a prolonged disruption of classes in the school calendar.
In case of suspension, the school calendar will be adjusted to ensure that the number of school days is met as stipulated in RA 11480 known as an Act to lengthen the school calendar from 200 days to not more than 220 class days.
During the suspension of classes, online classes will be put on hold while submission of requirements may be moved to a later date. Late submission of requirements will be afforded for those with valid reasons.
Yes, the number of cases is rising every day and the best we can do is to allow ourselves to be fully vaccinated and to only do what is essential. The cases vary from one area to another, but it is still the same. The virus is everywhere.
So, let us protect ourselves and our loved ones.