Zaragosa school students wait for the start of the turnover of the new classrooms by Capitol officials |CDN FILE PHOTO/NESTLE SEMILLA
CEBU CITY Philippines — The Cebu City Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is asking the Department of Education to forego the requirement of having isolation rooms installed in schools that will be returning to face-to-face (F2F) classes.
Councilor Joel Garganera, the deputy chief implementor of the EOC, said that because many of the schools have been damaged by Typhoon Odette, they may not be able to provide isolation rooms.
The DepEd has required at least one isolation room for students who may be exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 and a separate comfort room as well.
However, this may not be possible for 112 public schools in the city damaged by the typhoon.
With this, Garganera is appealing to the state education agency to give exemption to Cebu City’s public schools from this policy just so the qualified schools will be able to hold F2F classes already.
“We are still clearing the damage brought by Odette. Daghan pang mga eskwelahan nga problema pa sa atop, wala pay tubig kay nalagpot ilang tangke, nga wala pa nafully restored ang kuryente. In fact, giduol ko sa principal sa Adlaon asking do we really need that kay ready na mi,” said the councilor.
He believes that since home isolation is already an option under the new guidelines for managing COVID-19, then an individual exhibiting symptoms should just be brought home.
He said that isolation facilities will only be an additional burden for the schools even in private schools that do not have comfort rooms for each classroom.
“To DepEd, let’s do away with that. Until nga marestore, marehabilitate na nato ang mga eskwelahan, dinha na ta morequire niini,” he said.
He hopes that DepEd will consider their appeal because the EOC also understands that many parents and children want the F2F classes to return.
Cebu City expects 13 to 20 schools to hold limited F2F classes by May 2022 and those that qualify may return to F2F fully by the next school year. /rcg
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