Private school employees ask gov’t to reconsider ‘no vaccine, no classes’ stand

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Council of Teachers and Staff of the Colleges and Universities of the Philippines (CoTeSCUP) has asked the national government to reconsider the holding off of classes citing the plight of private schools and the need for their employees to also survive through the coronavirus pandemic.

Albeit understanding the point of President Rodrigo Duterte in his position to suspend the holding of classes until a vaccine is made available, CoTeSCUP said the private schools, including the sectarians, are “hard-pressed ” in finding means to sustain their operations and the employment of their teaching and non-teaching staff.

“While the budget of the public school sector is assured annually, the private schools including religious schools are hard-pressed in finding ways to survive and to maintain their operations, and as much as possible, protect the employment of their workers,” CoTESCUP said in a statement.

READ: Duterte: No COVID-19 vaccine? Opening of classes ‘useless’

The CoTESCUP is a coalition of labor unions, faculty associations, and persons employed in private educational institutes in the country.

CoTESCUP suggests that continuity of learning of the students and the operations of private school enterprises may be allowed provided that health and safety protocols will be in place on the campuses and that schools would adopt online learning setups for students who are able and willing to avail of it, among others.

“Schools seeking permission to continue with their operations amid this pandemic should be subject to regulatory standards concerning new modes of teaching and learning,” it said.

READ: Cebu mayors back Duterte’s ‘no vaccine, no classes’

The CoTESCUP statement, which was signed by faculty leaders of 12 private universities and colleges, also called on the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) “to make explicit the reminder to private institutions” not to use the recent labor advisory on the Guidelines on Employment Preservation Upon the Resumption of Business Operation against their employees’ exercise of the basic right to tenure and fair labor practices.

CoTESCUP said a number of teaching and non-teaching faculty in private schools are unorganized, “making them vulnerable to threats of dismissal if they do not agree with the planned wage cuts and/or retrenchment of these institutions.”

“Already, we have received reports that these threats have become real concerns for some members of this organization in schools across the islands,” CoTESCUP claimed.