DepEd wants Taal evacuees to be moved out from schools in order to immediately resume classes

January 17, 2020

The Department of Education is working on transferring families displaced by the Taal Volcano eruption temporarily staying in various schools in Region IV-A to other evacuation centers so classes could immediately resume.

In an interview on Friday at the sidelines of the "Duterte Legacy" launch in Pasay City, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said nearly 200 schools were still closed because of the evacuees.

"We are trying to solve the problem of learners whose classes have been suspended by negotiating with the local governments involved, the governors, mayors, and so on so they can identify spaces where they can put up temporary shelters for the evacuees so the students can go back to school," she said.

As of January 17, there were 1.829 million affected "learners" in Region IV-A or Calabarzon. About 178 schools or 1,147 classrooms in Batangas, Cavite and Laguna, all in Region IV-A, have become evacuation centers of 8,295 families or 38,926 individuals. Of the evacuees, about 10,000 are students.

Briones said Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, who went to Bauan, Batangas on Thursday, advised local government units to identify spaces for temporary shelters.

In a separate interview in the same event, Medialdea said that a three-hectare land in Bauan was identified.

He said the authorities would decide whether it would be the schools or the evacuees that would be transferred in the area 

Briones said students who were displaced could continue their studies to other schools.

"I signed an order allowing the children to go to public schools, like what happened in Marawi, accept them without documentation. The requirements will follow later," she said.

She said they have to fast-track the resumption of classes in areas affected since under the DepEd guidelines, there is a need for over 200 calendar days of school, otherwise, when classes resume, they would be extended.

As to the public teachers who were also displaced, Briones said they could refuse to go back to work. However, it would be no work, no pay, she said.

"There is no interruption in the salary. So they could not get their salary if they are not going to work. Because it's no work, no pay. That's what the law said," the DepEd chief explained.

Taal Volcano has started showing phreatic explosions last Sunday, prompting the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology to raise Taal's alert level to 4.

Residents living within the 14-kilometer danger zone have been ordered to evacuate. Celerina Monte/DMS