After pushing for the lifting of quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated inbound travelers, Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion has shifted his sights on bringing students back inside schools as a way to further push the country back to normalcy amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
The Go Negosyo founder made the statement after Malacañang announced the start of pediatric vaccination for children ages 5-11 on Feb. 4.
In a statement Monday night, Jan. 31, Concepcion suggested to the Inter-agency Task Force (IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to physically reopen schools now that more minors are being vaccinated against COVID-19.
"Now that the country is vaccinating 12-17 and 5-11, we will push the to open our schools, provided that both students and teachers are already fully vaccinated," he said.
Concepcion said this was also the call of Vice President Leni Robredo, a presidential aspirant in the upcoming May polls. Robredo has expressed support to Concepcion’s mindset in dealing with the pandemic.
"We are finally starting to move on and hopefully, this move will help our economy," he said.
According to Concepcion, bringing back students to school should be prioritized, provided that they are inoculated and belong to households with a 100 percent vaccination rate or have no unvaccinated senior citizens at home.
"Vaccinated kids belonging to 70 percent vaccinated households or no unvaccinated senior citizens in the house and living in areas with 80 percent of the population vaccinated, can also attend face-to-face classes," he said.
Concepcion likewise allayed worries about students and teachers being infected, saying the mask requirement should be strictly implemented to lessen the chance of acquiring COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the Palace official said bringing the students back to schools for face-to-face classes is part of his broader call for Filipinos to learn to live with COVID-19.
He added that the country cannot afford a long-term effect of "less than ideal" quality of education due to the online learning modality being implemented by the Department of Education (DepEd).
He further described the proposal as like hitting two birds with one stone, since it would help boost the vaccination rate among senior citizens.
"Students eager to go back to school will force their grandparents to get vaccinated. This way, it would be easier for the government to have our senior citizens vaccinated," he explained.
"Also, it would help micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSME) that depend on student mobility to thrive," he added.