Seventy public elementary and high schools in Bacolod City are scheduled for limited face-to-face (F2F) classes but teachers and students must be fully vaccinated.
The Bacolod City School Board agreed that the teachers and students who will participate in the F2F classes should be fully vaccinated, Councilor Renecito Novero, Sangguniang Panlungsod Committee on Education chairman, said Thursday, March 3.
”Although, somehow we cannot coerce our teachers or anybody else to be vaccinated against their will because that is their Constitutional right to refuse, it is also the obligation of the government to provide for and protect the general welfare of our people,” Novero said.
The Department of Education allows students to voluntarily undergo vaccination against COVID-19, but the local government policy will prevail, Novero said, pointing out that holding of F2F classes needs the approval of the mayor.
The limited F2F classes will not start all together in the 70 schools, they will open on a gradual basis, Dr. Chris Sorongon, Emergency Operations Center deputy, said.
The F2F classes can start in a school if the barangay where it is located has had no active COVID-19 cases for 28 days, Sorongon said.
So far the priority for resumption of limited F2F classes is at the Alangilan National High School, he said.
Next to resume limited F2F classes is the Mabini Elementary School that if approved by the Department of Education could start next week or before the end of March, Sorongon said.
The F2F classes will be limited to a few students, it will not be done abruptly, he said.
This is because while the mayor welcomes it, he wants to proceed with caution, Sorongon added.
Under F2F classes the maximum number of learners per class allowed will be 12 for kindergarten, 16 for elementary and 20 for high school, Novero said.
Students who participate in the F2F classes must have written consent from their parents, he added.*