Citing their crucial role in delivering the essential service that is education, a federation of teachers once again urged the government to prioritize the teachers in its coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination program.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), in a statement issued Tuesday, April 6, renewed its call for teachers to be prioritized further in the COVID-19 list.
This, the group said, is after the “deaths of five” personnel of the Department of Education (DepEd) in Isabela.
“Five more DepEd personnel in Isabela added to scores of teachers who have succumbed to COVID-19, with thousands more from DepEd offices and schools around the country having contracted the virus,” ACT said.
ACT said that their deaths and the “jarring effects of infection surges to education continuity expose the frailty of the government's ill-prepared distance learning program in the context of the Duterte administration's equally disastrous pandemic response.”
As such, ACT said that this should prompt the government to elevate the position of teachers in the vaccine priority list.
“Their crucial role in delivering the essential service that is education and the bare-faced fact that many educators get infected in the line of duty undeniably make teachers frontliners amid the pandemic,” ACT added.
Furthermore, ACT also urged the government to immediately provide gadgets and internet subsidy to all learners in need. This, it added, is will make digital modular and online learning truly be accessible and effective “thereby minimizing the need for physical distribution and retrieval of printed modules in schools and communities.”
DepEd has yet to issue a statement on this matter as of this writing.
In March, ACT also urged DepEd to immediately release an updated report on the coronavirus infections among its personnel as well as the course of action the agency is taking to assist those who tested positive for COVID-19 among teaching and non-teaching employees.