Recognizing the service of teachers to deliver essential education amid the pandemic, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) on Thursday, April 8, urged the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) to elevate "frontliner" teachers in the vaccination priority list from Phase 2-B1 to A4.
ACT formally made the request through a letter to the task force to illustrate the vulnerability of teachers to COVID-19 infection as they perform their duties.
The group noted that teachers are at a high risk of getting infected as they are "compelled to report to schools and visit communities to distribute modules and facilitate other government programs, such as the Department of Health’s deworming project."
"We are alarmed by the increasing number of teachers infected every day as they perform their sworn service to our learners. Without enough protection from the government, not only are their lives put on the line but also is the future of education," said ACT secretary-general Raymond Basilio.
He noted a 452-percent increase in the number of infected Department of Education (DepEd) personnel from August to October 2020.
However, Basilio said the DepEd data is "sorely outdated," citing the numerous reports from the ground on the alarming surge of infection among teaching and non-teaching personnel in the basic and higher education nationwide.
"The government needs to recognize the service of our education workers as frontliners in the delivery of education and heed teachers’ call to be included in the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination roll out before it’s too late," he said.