- MITCH M. LIPA
Bacolod City Mayor Evelio Leonardia has assured the faculty and staff of Negros Occidental Private Schools Sports, Cultural and Educational Athletic Association-member institutions that they will be among the priority sectors in the local government’s vaccination program against the coronavirus 2019.
NOPSSCEA president Mark Molina, executive vice president of STI West Negros University, said they got the nod of Leonardia and members of the COVID Vaccination Council during their meeting on Jan. 28 at the Bacolod Government Center.
Molina, together, with other NOPSSCEA officers, presented to city officials their position and cited the important role that the education sector plays in the government’s overall economic recovery efforts.
They emphasized that the academe is among the key sectors that stirs the economy once schools will gradually revert to conventional learning system, including the return to face-to- face classes.
Molina said that a survey form is now being distributed to all member schools to get the number of teachers and staff who are willing to receive the vaccine once the it is available in the coming months.
He said they cannot enforce it to all faculty members since vaccination is a choice.
The list will be submitted to the Emergency Operations Center to determine the total number of recipients.
The NOPSSCEA executive also reiterated to member-schools to put on hold the sports and the cultural activities of the association and continue their focus on academics under the new normal.
During the association’s board meeting last week, Molina said the group agreed to conduct series of webinars that will include students.
The activity will start this month and run until March 2021 for schools which opened last June of 2020, and until June 2021 for members that started their classes in August last year. – MML
