Deferment of UST's school opening draws 'expected' criticisms

MANILA, Philippines - A day after the University of Santo Tomas (UST) announced Friday that it moved its scheduled June-8 opening of classes, the school has been getting complaints from parents, but a school official said the phone calls were expected. Fr. Isidro Abaño, UST’s secretary general, said a parent complained of "inconvenience" over the short notice on postponement, which he said, they “intentionally" did to force students coming from their vacations abroad to observe the required 10-day self-quarantine guideline, and to give the school more time to polish their measures against Influenza A(H1N1). Abaño said he knew they could earn flak for announcing the postponement only last Friday. But he said they were thinking students' welfare against the dreaded mutant Influenza virus. "I could not even sleep the night before we announced it. This is a very big school. It was not an easy decision, but we had to," Abaño said in a phone interview with GMANews.TV. Abaño said, had the announcement been made earlier than Friday, students vacationing abroad could have re-booked their flights or extended their vacation. But “then, that would defeat the purpose of self-quarantine." UST is one of the schools that postponed the supposed June-8 opening of classes and moved it to June 15. The announcement was made after three students of the De La Salle University (DLSU) added to the number of confirmed A(H1N1) cases in the country. The next day, the Commission on Higher Education officially moved the school opening for the tertiary level to June 15. CHED Chairman Emmanuel Angeles said the measure would allow students, including foreign and those on vacation abroad, to use the one- week period to quarantine themselves. Dr. Eric Tayag, chief of the Health department's National Epidemiology Center (NEC) shared the same view. He added that parents should try to understand the schools’ decision as it was geared towards one direction of protecting students from the spread of the virus. Even before the classes for elementary and high school opened last June 1, the Department of Health (DOH) had issued an A(H1N1) response level guide for schools. Under measure, only schools that reached response level 3 or those with confirmed cases of A(H1N1) should suspend classes. The cancellation of the opening of classes by some schools with no recorded cases of infection, has caused confusion among students and parents. "Suspension does not apply to opening of classes," Tayag said as he explained that it applies only to schools where classes have already started, like in De La Salle University-Manila. "As for the other schools, how can they suspend when they have not even started? So, the word here is deferred not suspended." Like Abaño, Tayag does not believe that the deferment of the opening of classes would create panic among students. With the deferment of school opening, Tayag said schools would have more time to come up with precautionary measures as well as to inform their students. On the other hand, Tayag expressed hope that schools would really use the time to beef methods on how to determine students with flu-like symptoms, where to send them, and how to trace those who had close contact with infected persons. He said if schools wouldn’t use the time as expected, then deferring the classes would be useless. As far as Abaño is concerned, UST is “doing its best" to prepare the school against possible onslaught of the virus. As part of its preparations, the UST has assigned a “medical team" in every school building, it has canceled the freshman orientation and other similar crowded gatherings, it also has a list of students that should be monitored, and posted posters about A(H1N1) in strategic locations in the campus. He added that instead of using fliers, they also had the guidelines printed on a “cardboard fan" so that students would keep it. Abaño said the deferment was also prompted by dengue, a mosquito-borne infection that has been plaguing the country for quite some time. He said they have been informed by the DOH that the latter is more deadly than A(H1N1) virus that has one-percent fatality rate. Dengue, meanwhile, had already killed 57 in the country in a span of four months from January to April this year, DOH said. Abaño admitted that he has no guarantee that students who came from abroad would observe self-quarantine. He said, no matter how prepared they are, if the students would refuse to follow the guidelines a problem might arise. In dealing with dengue and A(H1n1), he said, students must play their part and they can start by being “honest and charitable". “Be honest enough to tell us if you have history of travel, if you have flu-like symptoms, or if you are not feeling well. If you feel sick approach the doctors immediately and avoid getting in close contact with other people. That way you will not spread the virus and that’s where charity will come in. After all, the life you are saving could be your own," Abaño said - Aie Balagtas See, GMANews.TV