The Department of Education (DepEd) urged its employees to register in their respective local government units (LGUs) so their vaccination against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) can be processed in time for their turn under the government’s priority list.

“We do confirm that the teachers, all government frontliners who are our employees are now in the A4,” DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla said in Laging Handa public briefing on Thursday, May 20.

Education frontliners are under the A4 category, which is a prioritization set by the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID) for vaccine to frontliners and skeleton workforce employees in essential sectors like education during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sevilla said that education frontliners can now start the processing of through LGUs. “Mag-apply po kayo, pumunta po kayo sa inyong mga LGUs, mayroon pong mga online application o iyong iba po ay may ibang pamamaraan, may umiikot or through your barangay or municipal city government ay makipag-ugnayan po kayo (Please apply, go to your LGUs, they have online applications and other methods, there are those who go around the barangay or municipal city government, please coordinate with them),” she explained.

Education frontliners, Sevilla said, only need to present their employee IDs during the registration in their respective LGUs. “Kasi nga po ay gusto nating mauna rin siyempre ang ating mga guro dahil (This is because we also want our teachers to come first because) we are preparing for the continuity of our learning,” she added.

In a separate message sent to reporters, Sevilla reiterated that DepEd personnel - even those who are out of the top vaccination priority list such as senior citizens or those with comorbidities - can already register for the vaccination.

“Yung teachers and education personnel, even if without comorbidities or not seniors, can already register sa LGUs, kasi kasunod na sila as A4 priority pero depende pa rin sa volume of vaccines sa LGUs (Teachers and education personnel, even if without comorbidities or not seniors, can already register in their respective local government units because they are next in line to receive the vaccines as part of the A4 priority group but it still depends on the volume of vaccines in the LGUs), Sevilla said, relaying inputs from Undersecretary for Administration Alain Pascua.

Based on the data provided by Planning Service under Undersecretary Jess Mateo, there are 986, 852 authorized positions in DepEd as of February 2021.

Of this number, 862, 108 hold teaching positions; 62, 465 hold positions related to teaching; and 62, 279 non-teaching positions.

DepEd also noted that of this number, 51 percent are personnel under the age bracket of 20 to 39; 45 percent are ages 40 to 59; and four (4) percent are ages 60 and above.

Early this week, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) partnered with LGUs and held symbolic vaccination of education frontliners at the higher education level.