MikeLigalig.com

Press Release: Education Agencies Urged to Revise, Update Class Suspension Policy
 
Storm Signal No. 2 class suspension should cover up to college, not just preschool to high school. In addition, class suspension should also include work suspension for the teachers and non-teaching personnel.
 
Localized armed conflict and its effects such as what is happening now in Marawi City also merit automatic class and work suspension in schools.
 
The safety of our students and school personnel must be top priority.
 
College students face the same floods and heavy rain the younger students do. Their parents also worry about their safety.
 
While most college students are legally considered as adults because they are 18 years old and older, they remain under the care of their parents. The legal term for that status is unemancipated.
 
Including the college level under Signal No. 2 class suspension coverage also greatly simplifies the administration of the class suspension policy.
 
In revising the class suspension policy, I also urge the education agencies and local government units to factor in not just the storm signal warnings, but also the public advisories on heavy rainfall, flood warnings, extremely high temperature, as well as the Phivolcs bulletins on earthquakes, aftershocks, and tsunami.
 
Localized disasters such as major fire incidents can also affect school attendance particularly in schools which serve urban poor communities and relocatees. These localized disasters should also be factored into the class suspension policy.
 
Concerned about the impact of many days of class suspensions on the attendance and compensation of school personnel, I urge the education agencies to work with the DBM and CSC to institute and implement some sort of work credit the personnel can apply so their earnings would not be greatly diminished.
 
Perhaps something similar to a service credit or amend the rules to include class suspensions due to disasters as one of the allowed reasons to apply a service credit.
 
Community service rendered because of disaster relief operations and use of campuses as evacuation sites should earn school personnel the appropriate service credits.

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