Teachers undergo refresher training for election day

Teachers from Mandaue City undergo a refresher course to get them ready to serve the May 13 elections. | CDND Photo/ Rosalie Abatayo

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — From their choice of clothes down to the implementation of election guidelines, teachers who will be serving as members of the Electoral Board (EB) are reminded to keep a neutral disposition on May 13, 2019 or election day.

Dr. Ismaelita Desabille, Department of Education (DepEd) focal person for election activities in Mandaue City, said teachers should be cautious even in small details like the colors of their shirts that they would wear during election day to avoid malicious interpretations by political camps.

In Mandaue City, the local Commission on Elections (Comelec) Office and DepEd Division Office started the refresher course for teachers on April 29, Monday.

Over 900 EBs in this city are divided into eight batches for the half-day training schedules slated on April 29, 30, May 2 and 3.

Desabille also reminded teachers to uphold the rules inside the polling precincts, especially on crowd control.

“This (training) will refresh those who have already served in previous elections and capacitate those who will be serving for the first time. This also aims to keep them confident as they perform their election duties so that the proceedings will be smooth sailing on election day,” said Desabille.

The EB members were also subjected to a two-day training sanctioned by the Provincial Comelec Office last February on the basic operations of the vote counting machines and the guidelines for the election day.

Acting Election Supervisor Jerome Brillantes, in previous interviews, said the refresher course for the serving teachers will be carried out by the respective local Comelec offices up to the first week of May. / celr