ACT TEACHERS Representative France Castro on Monday appealed to the Department of Education to impose an academic health break in schools in areas under Alert Level  3.

“There have been many reports of positive cases from the ranks of teachers, their family members, parents and students from Covid19. With record breaking numbers of daily positive cases, we appeal to the Department of Education to consider implementing an academic health break in areas under Alert Level 3 to give our students, teachers and their parents time to rest and recuperate from the onslaught of the surge of the Omicron variant,” Castro said.

“Giving our teachers and the students time to rest, especially amid the ongoing surge would allow them to focus on their health and recovery,” she added.

Castro said that allowing teachers to rest will also help them deliver better quality education once they recover.

“Public school teachers have long been complaining of not being afforded sick leave benefits within the school year because they are allegedly already covered by the leave benefits granted to those on ‘teachers leave basis,’ namely, service credits and the Proportional Vacation Pay,” Castro said.

The lawmaker also called on the DepEd to monitor Covid19 positive teachers and education support personnel.

“We hope that the Department of Education heed the call of our education stakeholders for the much needed academic health break for the NCR and other areas under alert level 3 as the country gets hit by the onslaught of the Covid19 surge,” Castro said.