No forced COVID-19 jabs on kids – DepEd

Children aged 5 to 11 are treated to a party-themed COVID-19 vaccination at James L. Gordon Memorial Hospital. (Photo courtesy of Olongapo City Information Center)

MANILA, Philippines — Students at the basic education level are not required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to take part in in-person classes, the Department of Education (DepEd) said on Wednesday.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said that immunization was not mandatory but the agency was encouraging the children to get vaccinated.

“[Vaccination] is not required. It is voluntary because the parents are the ones who will decide but, of course, we will encourage them,” she said at the Laging Handa public briefing.

But for teachers and DepEd employees, vaccination is mandatory, especially for those who are participating in physical classes.

Briones said unvaccinated staff or teachers who need to enter the school premises must present their swab or antigen test results.

“The kids are only encouraged to be inoculated because during the pilot phase—with more than 15,000 students involved—we saw that no one got infected with the virus,” the education chief said.

As of Wednesday, a total of 4,239 public schools and 76 private schools have started conducting limited in-person classes, according to Assistant Education Secretary Malcolm Garma.

He noted that, based on the data on Feb. 22, 6,145 public schools are ready to hold in-person classes under DepEd’s progressive expansion phase.

Even with the shift to alert level 1 of Metro Manila and 38 other areas, Briones underscored that in-person classes will only be a component of DepEd’s blended learning approach.

“Online [classes] are still there,” she said.

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