CHED: COVID-19 vaccination not required for participants of face-to-face classes

Participants of limited face-to-face classes were not required to get vaccinated against COVID-19, Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Chairperson Prospero De Vera III said Thursday.

“I did not push for mandatory vaccinations. In fact, [for] the limited face-to-face [classes] in medicine and health allied sciences there is no mandatory vaccination required,” De Vera said during the Senate briefing on the proposed 2022 budget of CHED and state universities and colleges (SUCs).

De Vera said the mandatory issue came after the commission started vaccinating student-athletes on Wednesday.

“I did not say there will be mandatory [vaccination]. It is the schools that were saying that it is best that they [get] vaccinated because...you cannot have social distancing in sports, that did not come from me,” he clarified.

During the ceremonial vaccination, student-athletes representing member schools of the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) received a dose of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

De Vera underscored that his position was always to convince the students and faculty members to get inoculated.

“I always said that the answer is to convince the students and faculty to be vaccinated because in the first batch of degree programs the infection [rate] was very low because we were able to work with the Department of Health (DOH). The students and faculty of medicine and allied health were all vaccinated because they were reclassified as A1,” he said.

Since vaccination was not mandatory, the commission must encourage the students and faculty members to take the vaccine, said Senator Pia Cayetano.

Cayetano said the CHED must issue guidelines on who should be allowed to enter areas such as rooms with limited ventilation.

“They will continue to have an education but they may not be allowed to enter [closed spaces] where they will put at risk their classmates who may have a comorbidity or they may put at risk their teacher who has an elderly parent,” the senator said.

“You may come up with guidelines that would distinguish between who will enter certain premises like if you have an audiovisual room and you may have to limit that,” she added.

Face-to-face classes in the tertiary level were previously limited to medicine and allied health sciences.

Other degree programs such as hospitality/hotel and restaurant management, and marine engineering have since been added to the list. 

Last week, De Vera said the resumption of in-person classes in tertiary education would depend on the necessity of physical classes to acquire skills and curriculum flexibility. — VBL, GMA News