MANILA – Even after the Philippines achieved the 8 million dose threshold for the Covid-19 vaccine, President Rodrigo Duterte declared on Monday that he would not “gamble” school children’s health by allowing face-to-face (F2F) classes to resume.
In a pre-recorded meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and some Cabinet members in Davao City, Duterte rejected the Department of Education’s (DepEd) proposal to resume F2F classes even in areas with low Covid-19 transmission risk, citing the threat posed by the Delta coronavirus variant (B1617).
“Dito sa face-to-face (This face-to-face classes), I think I am not inclined to agree with you. I’m sorry but mahirap (it’s difficult). I… I cannot… I cannot gamble on the health of the children. I hope you’d understand,” he told DepEd Secretary Leonor Briones who attended the meeting via Zoom.
Briones, for her part, stated that her department completely supports Duterte’s decision and recognizes the importance of adhering to medical experts’ professional judgment.
‘Very well-informed decision’
“There is really no problem, Mr. President,” Briones said.
Additionally, she stated that the DepEd will be prepared for a possible reopening of classes in the event that Covid-19 cases decline.
Briones regarded Duterte’s decision to suspend in-person classes as a “very well-informed” one.
“Listening to the briefing and listening to your decision, we don’t have any reservations because we all know the effect, especially the idea, Mr. President of having our children vaccinated because we are told our children are now more prone and perhaps are vulnerable and we would not want to risk 27 million children,” she said.
Briones stated that as a result of Duterte’s decision, the DepEd would use technology to provide classes for the forthcoming school year.
The DepEd held classes through online learning, modular learning, TV and radio-based instruction, and blended learning, which is a combination of two or more ways of learning, for the school year 2020 to 2021, which began in October 2020.
Medical experts had previously warned that new coronavirus strains were impacting more children.
Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr., the National Task Force against Covid-19’s primary implementer and vaccine czar, stated that half of the 40 million Covid-19 vaccines made by the US pharmaceutical company Pfizer will be utilized for children aged 12 to 15.
