To help protect their families, learners, and communities, Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones has encouraged personnel of the Department of Education (DepEd) to get immunized.
DepEd, in a statement on Wednesday, May 12, urged both teaching and non-teaching to get the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine jab especially now that the country has been receiving more supplies.
“We would like to encourage our teachers to be vaccinated because it is not only a matter of protecting your personal rights, but it is also a matter of protecting the lives and health of children and staff who are also entrusted in our care,” Briones said.
Briones pushed for the inclusion of education frontliners in the A4 priority list of the National Deployment and Vaccination Plan for COVID-19 (NDVP) - which was recently approved by the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging and Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).
“The teachers have been upgraded in the ranking along with other frontliners who directly deal with the public,” Briones said.
Given this, she said that DepEd’s appeal is for the personnel to get vaccinated against COVID-19. “What we have been pointing out is that we will be dealing with the children, we will be protecting the children and perhaps our teacher will consider it as part of the responsibility to protect the lives of those who are entrusted to us,” she added.
Briones also reiterated that teachers and personnel - who fall under higher priority categories, including those who are medical frontliners (A1), senior citizens (A2), and with comorbidities (A3) - can already register for vaccination in their respective local government units (LGUs).
Furthermore, Briones also asked all DepEd staff to assist in educating the public about vaccines and vaccination procedures.
“Teachers must be champions for the vaccine in their respective communities,” Briones said. “We are continuously conducting information campaigns as well as surveys to monitor the responses of our teachers to this policy,” she added.
In order to spread awareness and information on the importance of getting the COVID-19 vaccine and other mitigation efforts, DepEd also launched the “Vacc2School: Ligtas na Bakuna Para sa Balik-Eskwela” for teaching and non-teaching personnel.
DepEd is also eyeing to conduct town hall meetings to address stakeholders’ concerns and planning workshops for championing vaccination advocacies.