Duterte: CHED says over 9k students stranded in dormitories nationwide

Close to 9,400 students are stranded in dormitories and schools due to community quarantines aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), President Rodrigo Duterte told Congress on Monday.

Duterte said that an online survey by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) found that there were 1,229 students and educational institution personnel overseas in need of repatriation and 9,367 students stranded in dormitories/schools across the country.

The CHED said 142 of those overseas have been repatriated and 45 students from North Luzon who were stranded in Boracay during the enhanced community quarantine recently flew back to Manila.

The sweeper flight from Boracay to Manila was arranged by the Department of Tourism, according to CHED.

Transporting the stranded students from Manila to their respective provinces are handled by their respective schools.

“We are continuously monitoring the plight of stranded students all over the country and will assure their families that we will do everything to bring them home,” CHED Chairman Prospero De Vera III said in a statement last week. -NB, GMA News