SAN JOSE, Antique – The provincial government has requested the Department of Education (DepEd) to allow local government units (LGUs) to continue using the public schools as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) isolation facilities for until June 30.
League of Municipalities in the Philippines-Antique Chapter president and Libertad town mayor Mary Jean Te said the request has been officially made on May 19 through a letter sent by the office of Gov. Rhodora Cadiao to DepEd secretary Leonor Briones.
“The request was made due to the fact that there are still Antiqueños who need to undergo mandatory 14-day quarantine after coming home from other places, said Te.
According to Te, there were 578 Antiqueño sugar migrants working in Negros Occidental who arrived in this province on May 19.
“There are still more sugar migrants coming home aside from the other Antiqueños who are from Manila and other places,” she said.
For her part, DepEd Antique Division superintendent Dr. Felisa Beriong said the initial request for the use of schools as quarantine facilities was from April 23 to May 31 only.
“There are 44 DepEd schools right now in this province that were approved as isolation facilities but only until May 31,” said Beriong,
The previous request was only approved by the regional director, she added.
According to Beriong, Briones will be the one to approve the request made by the provincial government, considering there will already be a month-long enrollment on June 1 to 30.
Teachers in this province already need to prepare their classrooms prior to the enrollment period.
Meanwhile, Te admitted she feels a bit scared with the proposal of DepEd to start the enrollment already on June 1.
She said the enrollment and the eventual start of classes in August could expose the students to COVID-19.
“It would be quite difficult for the pupils to observe safe social distancing, especially when they have classes already,” Te said.
Libertad – fifth class municipality with 19 barangays – is the adjacent town of Pandan, which until now has confirmed cases of the virus.
Te said DepEd Antique Division’s plan to provide modular session to students, however, would be a good alternative since their Libertad LGU could not afford to provide the students the needed computer sets.
“Our school board this year 2020 has only about P500,000 as fund,” Said Te.
“Some barangays in Libertad already have internet connections, but not all have access yet,” she added.
Under modular learning, students would be required to go to school two or three times a week only. The rest of the days will be for them to work their activity sheets prepared by the teachers.(With a report from PNA/PN)
