MANILA, Philippines — Teachers on Tuesday hit President Rodrigo Duterte's rejection anew of proposals for a safe return to physical classes even in areas with low COVID-19 transmission.
Duterte in his public address last night told education officials that he would still not allow the move with more cases from variants of the COVID-19 are detected at home.
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In a statement, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers said the country's education system "is being held hostage by the Duterte administration's ineptitude in dealing with the pandemic."
"The several militaristic lockdowns without ample medical response expectedly failed to contain the virus," said Raymond Basilio, ACT secretary general. "Now, COVID-19 cases are on the rise again and mostly outside NCR, where we could have piloted a limited run of face-to-face classes."
DepEd said on Monday that some 300 schools were eyed as sites for a pilot run on resuming in-person learning. It was a number since narrowed down from the original 1,900 that the agency proposed.
With Duterte's new remarks, it is now unclear as to what will happen to this. But many groups had urged government to prioritize resuming face-to-face classes, as they warned that difficulties from the present setup are taking a toll on students and teachers' wellbeing.
"President Duterte claims he can’t gamble on the health of children," Basilio continued, "but what has he done to protect them and their rights aside from keeping them locked away in their homes? Part of ensuring the welfare of our youth is ensuring their access to quality education."
ACT added that vaccinations, which are crucial in Duterte deciding on reopening schools, have yet to reach a significant number of the population that could further delay students' return to classrooms.
By June 20, government figures showed that 2.15 million Filipinos have completed their COVID-19 shots, out of officials' goal of 50 to 70 million this year.
Some 6.25 million, meanwhile, got their first dose, with 8.40 million doses since administered.
The Food and Drug Administration has cleared Pfizer's jab for the use of 12 to 15 year olds, but inoculations are still on those in the priority list, which does not include the said age group.
"At the rate we're going, the country is nowhere near the government's own target for herd immunity," Basilio said. "It's starting to feel like we're at the mercy of the behavior of this virus, like there's no government at all."
Duterte in December 2020 approved, and weeks later, shelved DepEd's proposal for a pilot study. To date, health authorities have confirmed 17 Filipinos who contracted the Delta variant of the COVID-19, which was first detected in India.
It is feared to be more transmissible, with the World Health Organization warning that it is developing into a globally dominant variant of the virus.