To increase the confidence in safe reopening of schools, around 1.3 million teachers should be inoculated with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines.
In a position paper titled “Prioritize teachers in COVID-19 vaccinations” released on March 19, a total of 33 organizations are pushing for the prioritization of teachers as determined by the National Immunization Technical Advisory Group (NITAG).
“Teachers are critical to the continued functioning of society,” the groups said. “While teachers are at an average risk level of COVID infection, vaccinating them increases confidence to open schools,” they added.
Based on their estimate, the organizations noted that around 1.3 million teachers - including teaching support staff - should be vaccinated to ensure the safe reopening of schools and resumption of face-to-face classes.
Citing data from the Department of Education (DepEd) for basic education, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) for higher education, and Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) for Technical and Vocational Education and Training or TVET, the groups said that the estimated number of teachers and teaching staff in the education sector - including public and private sector - is around 1.3 million or 1,180,000 teachers (basic education); 137,000 faculty (tertiary education) and 11,000 trainers (TVET).
The groups are pushing for the vaccination of teachers to pave the way for the resumption of physical classes - noting how “learning has evidently regressed” under the current learning set-up.
“Around 2.7 million elementary students did not enroll in the current school year,” the organizations noted.
Citing the latest World Bank estimate, the groups noted that “our learning-adjusted years of school (LAYS) will have been pushed back from 7.5 years pre-pandemic to 5.9-6.5 years, depending on the duration of further school closures and the effectiveness of distance learning.”
This, they added, means that “while our basic education system offers twelve (12) years of instruction, our students only exhibit proficiency of around six (6) years in school.”
Likewise, the groups noted that the prioritization of teacher and education personnel is also the “common standard internationally.”
The US Center for Disease Control included teachers as “essential workers” and they will be vaccinated after health care personnel and long-term care facility residents.
Saudi Arabia and Russia “similarly put teachers high on the list.” In Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Singapore already started inoculation of their teachers while Cambodia has put teachers next in the priority list after health workers.
The groups noted that international organizations recommended and called on countries to prioritize teachers in COVID-19 vaccination.
On separate dates in December 2020, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) issued similar statements calling for the prioritization of teachers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine to help schools reopen.