Rama urges teachers to get vaccinated
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is hopeful that face-to-face (F2F) classes will return in the city’s schools and universities in the coming Academic Year (AY) 2022-2023.
After all, the city has already been downgraded to Alert Level 1 until April 2022.
However, in order to return to physical classes, the mayor is convinced that vaccination must be 100 percent among teachers so that parents can be assured of the safety of their children.
The city has been continuously advocating for the vaccination of eligible populations with an emphasis on minors aged 5 to 17 years old in preparation for the F2F classes.
In fact, the city has fully vaccinated 50,748 adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, and 2,703 kids aged 5 to 11 years. A total of 61,895 adolescents and 8,544 kids have already got at least the first dose.
Rama is hopeful that before the new academic year starts on August, the city would have reached herd immunity in the two age groups.
However, the efforts will be futile if there will be teachers who refuse to get vaccinated.
“Kinahanglan maghuna-huna ang mga maestra, face-to-face. Kinsa may mga ginikanan diha magpada sa ilang mga anak unya ang mga maestra way bakuna?” Rama said.
(Teachers should think that it’s face-to-face. What parent would allow their children to school with the teacher still not vaccinated?)
Rama said he is not going to force teachers but only advice them.
“Dili ko mamugos, pero og naghuna-huna sila og leadership by example, it goes without saying, it becomes a moral obligation. May not be legal, but moral,” said the mayor.
(I won’t force them but if they think of leadership by example, it goes without saying, it becomes a moral obligation. May not be legal, but moral.)
The mayor already said in previous statements that the city will be holding vaccinations in schools to bring the vaccinated numbers up among students before the new school year.
He urged the teachers to take every opportunity to get vaccinated so that when they finally hold classes back in the classrooms, they become examples for students to get vaccinated.
With the Alert Level 1, Rama is studying about issuing a new directive to supplement his Executive Order, Oplan Kagawasan.
He said he is observing the city’s reopening of economy to tailor fit his new directives to the needs and challenges of the different sectors.
He urged the residents to be cooperative so that the city will maintain its Alert Level status in the months to come and eventually go back to pre-pandemic normalcy.
“I would wish to see beyond, that we should not even think of new normal. I want to see normalcy in the name of God, in the name of Snr Sto Niño,” he said.
/bmjo
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