Teachers group advises DepEd to firmly implement health protocols over reports of teachers contracting COVID-19

A group of concerned teachers has demanded the Department of Education (DepEd) to strictly implement health protocols and work arrangements after several reports has been received about suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19 that involves teachers.

Photo credit: pna.gov.ph

A 30, 000-member group, the Teachers' Dignity Coalition (TDC) criticized DepEd's leadership due to "not exerting enough effort" to reduce the exposure of teachers while reporting to their respective schools or while working against the virus.

The TDC claimed that DepEd is not “acting swiftly on reports” from the field that many of its local officials are still requiring their teachers to report physically to their schools while the default arrangement is a work-from-home set-up.

According to TDC, DepEd is not immediately acting upon reports from the field that many of its local officials are still requiring their teachers to report physically to their schools, as the original arrangement supposedly is that teachers are going to work from their own home.

“This pandemic is a serious threat to life and safety of our teachers, thus, the DepEd should take this seriously as well,” said TDC Secretary-General Emmalyn Policarpio.

Policarpio assumed that after DepEd Central Office released an order, several memoranda and clarifications upon clarifications about the arrangement of work for teachers, “some field officials still require their teachers to go to school and we never missed to remind the DepEd of this, in many different ways.”

TDC said that it has been receiving reports of suspected and even confirmed COVID cases from teachers despite the issuance of directives from the DepEd Central office against physical reporting in schools.

“We have received some information that several teachers who were earlier required to report physically to their schools were eventually tested positive for COVID-19,” Policarpio noted.

“In another report, at least two teachers have observed symptoms a day after reporting to their schools and are now both suspected cases in their localities and had been put in strict isolation,” she added.

Policarpio said that the latest report received by TDC came from Southern Luzon just this morning. TDC was told that some “20 teachers were put in isolation after having been exposed to a colleague who eventually tested positive of the virus.”

The group has also insisted on the agency to give warning to field officials who are still requiring their teachers to report to their schools or they be given administrative actions for violating the order.

“Once and for all, the DepEd Central Office should call the attention of the field officials who require their teachers to report physically, give them a stern warning or take administrative actions against them,” Policarpio said.

An initial list of Schools Division Offices (SDOs) has already been submitted with reported cases of schools that require physical reporting to the Office of the Secretary for their confirmation.

Meanwhile, TDC acknowledged the formal reply of the DepEd Central Office to its letter reiterating the request for a definite instruction to clarify the intention of the DepEd Order No. 11, s. 2020 or the alternative work arrangement in the department.

In its reply addressed to Policarpio, the DepEd Central Office – thru Undersecretary Revsee Escobedo on July 9 – clarified the work from home (WFH) set-up as the “default scheme which will be used especially for teachers whose main task is to facilitate classroom learning, even in areas considered as low-risk” and that the “physical or on-site reporting is non-mandatory and shall be done in consultation with the personnel involved.”

DepEd also clarified that “only personnel with tasks or functions that cannot be rendered remotely or those in exceptional cases can be considered for physical reporting” and that the concerned offices that require physical reporting “should provide for transportation services for their employees.”

As instructed by the DepEd CO, TDC reiterated that “physical reporting shall be prohibited for schools that were used as quarantine or isolation facilities."