Teachers’ group to gov’t: Free mass testing and safe schools first before resuming face-to-face classes

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers, in a statement issued by ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio on Feb. 13, has urged the government to guarantee free and regular mass testing for all students and education personnel who will return back to schools, in addition with prioritizing school safety and improved facilities, hiring nurses for schools and strict health protocol implementation.

The statement was made following the announcement of DepEd that Senior High School students will be the priority when President Duterte allows limited face-to-face classes.

However, ACT Secretary-General Raymond Basilio has expressed skepticism about DepEd’s announcement.

The DepEd has been saying that it is preparing for face-to-face classes but we don’t see this on the ground,

said ACT Secretary-General Raymond Basilio.

ACT explained that education stakeholders will only be confident about the school reopening if the government organizes a clear and comprehensive plan along with sufficient funding that will allow a safe conduct of limited face-to-face classes in low-risk areas. 

Basilio believes that the massive and free regular testing will significantly help in keeping the virus out of school premises.

ACT has also repeatedly called for the restoration of the P13 billion cut in the budget for basic school facilities this year to fill in the shortages on essential facilities for safe schools. This is due to the different concerns in schools that are still needed to be addressed. 

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Basilio, citing DepEd data, said that there are 4, 536 schools who don’t have water supply and 2, 870 lacks handwashing facilities. In addition, DepEd only has 600 school nurse items for 47,000 schools. And according to a survey conducted by ACT in July 2020, 21% of teacher respondents said that there is no running water in their schools.

ACT has also emphasized the need for education workers to have health protection as they cite that the government has been neglecting the health safety of teachers and employees since they returned to work in June 2020.