(FILE) BACK TO CLASSROOMS Several schools in Cebu City, like Abellana National High School, have been holding limited in-person classes for several months now. — NESTLE SEMILLA
MANILA, Philippines — Vaccination against COVID-19 for students and their guardians should be incentivized and encouraged as schools prepare to resume full face-to-face or in-person classes in November, Department of Health (DOH) officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire said Friday.
Vergeire said that although vaccination will not be a precondition for a student’s attendance in an in-person class, the vaccination of students and their guardians against COVID-19 should be incentivized and encouraged.
“Definitely, vaccination should not be a prerequisite to going to school. This would disenfranchise other children whose parents would really not allow their children to have themselves vaccinated. Education is a right. We cannot take it to another mandate wherein they will not be able to go to school because of this,” she said over ABS-CBN News’ Headstart.
The health official further noted: “What we need to do is incentivize and also we need to encourage our mothers, our guardians that their children get vaccinated.”
Vice President Sara Duterte, who also sits as Education Secretary, earlier announced that School Year 2022-2023 will open on August 22, with in-person classes of five days a week to begin in all schools nationwide on November 2.
Vergeire reiterated that the government should do its share in ensuring a safe environment for the students with the resumption of in-person classes.
“We are going to set up vaccination sites in schools to further encourage not just children, but also their mothers when they go to school and bring their children there. They are there already. They might be more encouraged because iyong access ay binigay na natin sa kanila (we’ve already given them the access),” she added.