DepEd ensures measures to lessen COVID-19 effects in schools and offices

The Department of Education (DepEd) assured that measures to alleviate the effects of Covid-19 in schools and its offices are in place amid the increasing concerns on the health and safety of teachers and other non-teaching personnel.

We are taking all the precautions to ensure the health and safety of our personnel, especially the teachers, 

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said during the Handang Isip, Handa Bukas virtual presser.

Photo credit: pia.gov.ph

The education secretary added that in places where Covid-19 cases are still high as inspected by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and the Department of Health (DoH), “teachers are also not allowed to go out” so chances of infection and tranmission of the virus is relatively low.

The department issued the Required Health Standards in an effort to ensure the safety of its personnel and learners this coming school year and it provides several measures for coronavirus mitigation in schools and offices.

The Required Health Standards include general health and safety protocols to increase physical and mental resilience, reduce transmission, reduce contact, and reduce duration of infection as well as the testing protocols, including early detection, referral process, testing and quarantine, contact tracing, and support protocols for COVID-19 positive learners, teachers, and personnel.

As for support mechanism for DepEd's Required Health Standards in the field, it includes the conduct of disinfection of learning materials prior to packaging and distribution and forming a stronger partnerships with barangay councils that will help in facilitating the distribution and retrieval of the self-learning modules to their barangays.

A regional memoranda has been issued by DepEd on strengthened management and response to COVID-19 and the execution of alternative work arrangements on all levels of administration.

Contingency plans for COVID-19 pandemic by the department are also in place. Inclusion of COVID-19 protocols and other health-related reminders in learner's package kits has have also been finalized.