CHED lifts ban on unvaccinated to attend in-person college classes
The Department of Social Welfare and Development said it is considering adopting an offsite payout system for indigent students who could not register online for the agency’s educational assistance program due to lack of access to internet or gadgets.
DSWD spokesperson Assistant Secretary Romel Lopez said the department will craft specific guidelines for the house-to-house distribution of the cash aid, possibly in coordination with the local government units.
“If we still have the funds, we’re not discounting the possibility of extending the payout periods for our kababayans,” Lopez said.
As of yesterday, the DSWD has released P387.9 million educational assistance to some 153,000 students nationwide.
The department is distributing P1,000 for elementary students, P2,000 for high school students, P3,000 for senior high school students, and P4,000 for college students or vocational courses.
With a budget of P1.5 billion, the DSWD aims to cover at least 400,000 students across the country.
Lopez said the DSWD, with the help of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), is also planning to add more payout centers in cities and municipalities to serve more students in crisis situations.
“Last Saturday when DILG Secretary Benhur Abalos visited one of our payout areas, he promised us that he will be talking to more local government units to cater and help us with our educational assistance. Our possible agenda will be to really increase the number of our payout centers to better help our kababayans,” Lopez added.
At present, the financial assistance is released through the DSWD central, regional, provincial, and other local offices every Saturday until Sept. 24, 2022.
Those who want to receive the cash assistance were advised to register online or email DSWD at [email protected]. The applicants can also visit the DSWD website and social media accounts for other details.
Meanwhile, the Commission on Higher Education has revoked its directive to disallow unvaccinated students and faculty members to attend face-to-face classes in colleges and universities.
“Looking back at November 2021 and today, so much has changed. Vaccination rates went up. In many other countries, health and education authorities began to take back the requirement for vaccination since the risk is now easier to control,” CHED chairperson Prospero de Vera III said.
CHED earlier reported that over 3.1 million or 77 percent of college students are either partially or fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 260,661 or 90 percent of higher educational institution personnel got partial or full vaccination.
De Vera said CHED is also planning to coordinate with the Department of Health to roll out mobile COVID-19 vaccinations and organize counseling sessions among unvaccinated learners and teachers in schools.
“We will talk again with the presidents of the universities and let us now focus on vaccinating all those who are not yet vaccinated and those who need to receive booster shots. It will be done. It’s easier to do that in higher education because a lot of universities have already done that in the past,” he said.
The Department of Education has also allowed unvaccinated teachers to teach in classrooms during the resumption of in-person classes on Aug. 22.