By Warren Valdez
DAVAO CITY - The Department of Education in Region 11 (DepEd 11) is calling on all schools in the region to provide necessary equipment to monitor students and individuals entering and exiting school premises amid the alarming local transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
DepEd 11 Spokesperson Genielito Atillo said in an interview Tuesday that schools should also provide all possible means so that all individual could be checked as part of prevention measures against COVID-19.
“We are calling on the schools that if they have the capability to determine the temperature of all (students and individuals) then please do so,” he said.
“Maybe you have gadgets there that you can use whatever is available to determine the body temperature and determine if a student has fever or not,” Atillo added.
He also said that school authorities should utilize their medical personnel to help in monitoring and checking on all individuals going in and out of the schools.
Asked if the Department would be providing necessary equipment for this kind of monitoring, Atillo said, they do not have the capacity to provide for all.
“But if the schools can look for ways and means they are actually allowed,” he said.
He also added that schools, given the circumstances, “they can use their maintenance and other operating expenses or the MOOE, which is a school fund to procure for something which they can utilize just to make sure that everybody is well and alive.
“But if they cannot, we urge and encourage them to really look for ways and means,” Atillo said.
He also noted that school’s information system must be intensified so that they can encourage students and individuals to engage with concerned school personnel, and “tell them the truth about their health conditions to avoid further problems should there be any students who will exhibit flu-like symptoms”.