Commission on Higher Education Central Luzon OIC-Regional Director Maria Teresita Semana (left) is encouraging tertiary students to avail COVID-19 vaccines in the regional simultaneous vaccination activity on November 19. (Jag Lyra D. Costamero/PIA 3)
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Commission on Higher Education (CHED) encourages tertiary students in Central Luzon to take their COVID-19 jab during the regional simultaneous vaccination activity tomorrow, November 19.
CHED OIC-Regional Director Maria Teresita Semana underscored that they are making an aggressive effort of vaccinating students in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in preparation for the gradual reopening of face-to-face classes.
“It is important at this time that we work together. What we are seeing is that, although the local government units are conducting a massive vaccination drive, some HEIs are still struggling in reaching out to their students to have them vaccinated,” she said.
With the theme, “Mag-aaral RumesBAKUNA na. Now Na! Bakunado, Protektado!”, the region-wide activity tapped 19 universities and colleges around the region to serve as vaccination sites.
Based on records from CHED, about 118,000 or 32 percent out of the 367,884 total population of tertiary students in Central Luzon received their jabs.
With this, Semana said that students from HEIs in Central Luzon who opt to be protected against COVID-19 may coordinate with their schools for enlistment and endorsement.
“We are handling this event with utmost care for the safety of our students, so we are following the guidelines. We also want to emphasize that we are not stopping those HEIs who already have their own vaccination program,” she stressed.
Students to be jabbed should bring their school identification card and COVID-19 vaccine registration forms, while those with comorbidities should have clearance from their doctors.
In addition, Semana said they are bent to vaccinate around 70 to 80% of the tertiary students in the region by the end of November 2021 with the guidelines from the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) that only fully vaccinated students and faculty members will be able to participate in the conduct of limited face-to-face classes.
“I want to emphasize that there is no coercion for the students to get vaccinated, because the implementation of flexible learning will still be continuous… Most probably, our HEIs will conduct hybrid classes where some students will go to their classrooms, while others will study online,” she said.
Our Lady of Fatima University – San Fernando Campus in Pampanga; Our Lady of Fatima University – Cabanatuan City Campus in Nueva Ecija; and the Centro Escolar University – Malolos Campus in Bulacan are so far the universities identified to have limited face-to-face classes, among 212 HEIs in Central Luzon.
IATF approved on November 17 CHED’s proposed phased implementation of limited in-person classes for all programs under Alert Level 3 and below.(MJSC/JLDC-PIA 3)
