Briones wants Taal evacuees out of schools
Credit to Author: Catherine S. Valente, TMT| Date: Fri, 17 Jan 2020 17:10:16 +0000
The head of the Department of Education on Friday asked the local government units in areas affected by Taal Volcano’s activity to start looking for places to transfer evacuees temporarily staying at schools.
In an interview at the sidelines of the Duterte Legacy Campaign in Pasay City, Education Secretary Leonor Briones said classes had been disrupted because the schools were being used as evacuation centers.
She said Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea had ordered the local government of Batangas to look for areas where evacuees at the 168 schools in the region could be relocated.
“We need to find a solution because classes cannot resume if they are still there,” she added.
She said 2,471,960 students were affected by the Taal eruption as of January 16.
The evacuees had to be moved out, Briones said. “We can’t do anything about it. A choice has to be made.”
Schools in the affected areas will have to extend school hours or have classes during holidays to catch up with the required number of school days.
“We have to make up for the lost days of classes. We have a requirement of more than 200 days,” she added.
Teachers affected by the volcano’s unrest who refuse to hold classes during holidays or extend class hours will not get paid, she said.
“They can refuse, they can also not refuse. But from our experience, they don’t refuse. It’s true they have problems also. They have lost their houses, etc. That’s why we encourage them to take advantage of loans,” Briones said.
WITH JAN ARCILLA