THE NATIONAL government must employ comprehensive health measures instead of risking young learners’ safety with unsafe return to schools due to the Department of Education’s (DepEd) poor health protocols and the government’s non-commitment to fund safe, accessible and quality education. The Alliance of Concerned Teachers issued this call on the heels of DepEd’s proposal and subsequent approval of the President to hold face-to-face classes in low-risk areas.
The alliance has a point. Major holes in DepEd’s health protocols detailed in Department Order 14 should first be mended before talks of holding physical classes continue because the policy is neither preventive nor responsive.
We’re only about a month away from class opening but we’re still yet to see substantial budget and sufficient measures to ensure the safe return to schools of either or both education workers and learners. DepEd still refuses to properly hold health screening, outrightly rejects mass testing, fails to lay down plans to hire school nurses and address facility issues, maintains the lack of sick leave benefit for teachers, and forgoes any institutional accountability and support for its constituents who may be infected towards and during class resumption.
It seems the clamor for face-to-face classes does not come from local government units’ and lawmakers’ belief that it’s safe enough to do so, but from the LGUs’ difficulties in meeting the burdensome requirements of distance learning passed onto them by the national government. DepEd’s pronouncement that even the safety measures needed for face-to-face classes will be shouldered by LGUs is disappointing.
Education secretary Lenor Briones and President Duterte conceding to face-to-face classes in some areas is short of acknowledging the weakness of the Learning Continuity Program in terms of education access and quality. But accessible and quality education must not come at the cost of safety.
The administration’s anemic response to the pandemic, evidenced by the unabated spike in confirmed COVID-19 cases, remains at the core of the unsafe conditions for physical classes. Hence the need for a comprehensive approach to the health crisis, while also guaranteeing access to and quality of education, as is the State’s duty.
