The Department of Education (DepEd) XI called on schools in the region to create protocols to monitor students and individuals entering and exiting premises, amid the rising cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19).
DepEd XI spokesperson Jenielito Atillo told TIMES in an interview Tuesday that schools should also purchase temperature gadgets to check parents, guardians, and students.
“We are calling for the schools that if they have the capability to determine the temperature of all (students and individuals) then, please, do so,” he said.
“Maybe you have gadgets there that you can use. Whatever gadget available to determine the body temperature and determine if one student has fever or not,” Atillo added.
He also said that school authorities should utilize their medical personnel to establish and implement the protocols.
When asked if the Department would be providing necessary equipment for this kind of monitoring, Atillo said, they do not have the funds to do so.
“But if the schools can look for ways and means they are actually allowed,” he said.
He also added that schools, given the circumstances, “can use their maintenance and other operating expenses or the MOOE, which is a school fund to procure for something, which they can utilize just to make sure that everybody is well and alive.”
He also noted that the school’s information system must be intensified to encourage students and staff to “to tell them the truth on their health conditions to avoid further problems.”
