Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte remained firm that there should be “no segregation, no discrimination” among the vaccinated and unvaccinated students who will start attending face-to-face classes in November this year.
Duterte earlier ordered through Department Order No. 34 the start of classes this August 22, as well as the transition to full in-person classes by November 2.
She argued that unvaccinated learners cannot be discriminated against because Covid-19 vaccination is not mandatory among minors.
The Vice President and concurrent Education secretary said that she proposal this policy to President Marcos, who already agreed to the recommendation.
“Ang sinabi po namin (We said that) there should be no segregation, no discrimination sa mga (against the) unvaccinated learners dahil hindi naman po mandatory ang vaccination program natin (because our vaccination program is not mandatory),” Duterte said in a recent media interview.
“We don't see any problem with commingling sa loob ng eskwelahan dahil pag labas naman po nila sa eskwelahan ay naka cominngling po lahat ng (inside the school because when they go out of the school, they are commingling with) vaccinated and unvaccinated natin sa mga bahay, sa mga (in our homes, in the) malls, sa simbahan, sa (in the church, in) public transportation,” she added.
The Philippines has already vaccinated more than 60 percent of its 110-million population, but only 9.6 million adolescents and 3.7 million children have already been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
While some groups have been pushing for the mandatory vaccination of children aged 5 years old and up, the government has yet to make this a requirement for traditional learners even as the number of Covid-19 cases in the country reached 3.7 million, killing 60,000 so far.
Duterte assured that there are enough safety protocols in place for parents to feel safe letting their children attend in-person classes.
She explained that schools must have sanitary stations, while access to alcohol is a must if hand-washing stations are not available.
Blended learning will still be allowed if the students feel sick, Duterte said, adding that it is up to the parents to check their children for Covid-19 symptoms.
So far, President Marcos approved three options for the eventual transition to full in-person classes.
The first option is for five-day face-to-face classes, the second is for the hybrid of in-person and online, and the third is for full online since this was requested by private schools.
However, the Vice President, who cited a study about the students “learning less” in a distance learning setup, remained adamant that it is high time for the country to go back to the traditional mode of learning.
The Philippines is among the few countries in the world where schools have not fully opened yet for in-person classes.
Out of the 60,000 public and private academic institutions in the country, only about 25,700 are holding face-to-face classes.
Duterte also shared that she will soon address the backlog in classroom construction to solve the problem of overpopulated classrooms.