TEACHERS who will participate in the pilot run of limited face-to-face classes are not required to be vaccinated against Covid19, the Department of Education said.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said regardless of their vaccination status, teachers aged 65 years and below can join in the dry run as long as they do not have comorbidities.

“Sa tingin namin napaka-significant na ng number of teachers (vaccinated). We are only talking about 100 public schools and 20 private schools. Hindi siguro enormous ang challenge to have vaccinated teachers,” Briones said.

She, however,  clarified that teachers were encouraged to get their Covid19 jabs in their respective local government units.

Last week, Education Undersecretary Alain Pascua said around 380,000 or 40 percent of DepEd’s teaching and non-teaching personnel have been vaccinated against Covid19.

On Monday, Palace Spokesman Harry Roque said that President Rodrigo Duterte has allowed the holding of limited in-person classes in areas with low Covid19 risk.