DepEd urges students to get vaxxed

The Department of Education (DepEd) in Region XI has called on students to get vaccinated to protect themselves from the COVID-19 as classes start this month.

DepEd regional spokesperson Jenelito Atillo, during the I-Speak media forum on Thursday, said although the freedom of choice of the parents as well as the youth is a constitutional right which the department cannot overturn, they still highly encourage the vaccination of all students.

“We fully support the government’s effort to vaccinate the children, the only problem— as far as DepEd is concerned —on our part, that’s not mandatory. Because there is this constitutional guarantee on the freedom of choice,” Atillo said.

He cited religion and health concerns as among the many reasons why parents refused to have their children vaccinated.

Still, Atillo said, the department continues to encourage parents to have their children inoculated.

Atillo said almost a million students in the Davao Region have already enrolled for school year 2022-2023, which will start on August 22.

As of August 11, a total of 951,312 students have already enrolled. The figure is already 68 percent of last year’s 1,395,893 enrolees, with over a week left for enrolment.

Of the over 950,000 students enrolled, 349,557 are from Davao City.

Atillo, however, said the number is a “far-cry” from the number of enrolees in the past two years of the pandemic.

As of July, a total of 284,696 students in the Region XI had been vaccinated. Of these, 45,977 are elementary school pupils, 167,125 are in junior high school, 62,771 are senior high students, and 8,823 are enrolled in the Alternative Learning System.

Atillo said that for the first months of the school year, all schools will offer hybrid modality of learning, and will shift to full face-to-face learning scheme on November 2.

He said the return to full face-to-face classes is “going to be a resurrection of the traditional conduct of classes in the country.”

Atillo said the DepEd has already prepared contingency plans in order to respond to any health risks and incidence such as the possibility of another surge of COVID-19 cases. CIO