MANILA, Philippines — The Manila City local government unit has declared a week-long health break for all students and faculty in all public and private academic institutions and in all levels in the City of Manila, it said Thursday.
In a statement issued through the city's public information office, Manila City Mayor Francisco 'Isko Moreno' Domagoso, who is running for president under Aksyon Demokratiko, disclosed he signed Executive Order No. 07 declaring the health break from Friday, January 14 until Friday, January 21, for both online and physical classes.
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"Parents have a high anxiety level for their children, and the anxiety level of teachers [is the same way]," Domagoso said.
"So you have one week to rest and hopefully our infected students and the student's family and their parents who are also infected; the infected teacher, and the teacher's family [can recover]," he added.
According to Domagoso, this is to give both the students and teachers a breathing space amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the threat of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
Domagoso in his statement highlighted what he said was the importance of addressing the increasing anxiety of the public while also attending to the general health of its students and teachers.
The Alliance of Concerned Teachers has long called for a health break for students and teachers throughout the entire National Capital Region — which is under Alert Level 3 amid the surge in coronavirus cases — pointing out the costs and mental burden of preparing and attending classes during a global pandemic.
In a memorandum released Thursday, the DepEd allowed its regional offices and school division offices to suspend classes in January “based on their reliable assessment of the health status of their teachers and learners and the IATF risk classification.”
ACT in a statement said that the department’s move is a recognition of their call for a two-week “health break” but urged the department to be more decisive and "make the decision themselves."
“There are 209 class days for this school year, 200 of those can be deemed as contact time—otherwise known as Teaching-Learning Days—which gives us 20 more days than the generally prescribed 180-day contact time by DepEd,” said Vladimer Quetua, President of ACT NCR Union.
"Two weeks of health break would only mean 12 days less, leaving us still with 188 days of contact time. It’s entirely doable and will not sacrifice the youth’s chance at education. Denying it, on the other hand, will have serious effects to the quality of teaching and learning."
— Franco Luna with a report from Gaea Katreena Cabico