The Commission on Higher Education (CHED) issued guidelines for the prevention, control and mitigation of the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in higher education institutions (HEIs) especially in areas where the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) is enforced.

CHED Chairman J. Prospero E. De Vera III, issued CHED COVID-19 Advisory No. 8 dated March 28, 2021 for the information and guidance of all HEIs, and CHED Central and Regional Offices.

The advisory was issued in connection with the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) Resolutions Nos. 106 and 106-A, both issued on 27 March 2021, and 106-B issued on 28 March 2021, particularly Section B, Par. 10 thereof, declaring that the “education sector shall operate in accordance” with guidelines issued by CHED, among others.

De Vera noted that CHED issued its Advisory No. 6 dated April 13, 2020. This advisory is “hereby reiterated and re-stated for implementation on the current ECQ implemented in NCR-plus” including Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna and Rizal.

Likewise, De Vera noted that the CHED Advisory No. 7 dated May 24, 2020 =is also “reiterated and re-stated for implementation on the current ECQ implemented in the aforementioned area.

De Vera noted that as a supplemental policy to Advisories No. 6 and No. 7, HEIs in areas placed under ECQ are allowed to deploy skeletal workforce on-site for the following essential services and personnel:

1) Essential administrative services - include workers in charge of payroll, salaries, and employee assistance, IT administrators, accounting staff, and security personnel;

2) Essential academic services- teachers and faculty who rely or depend on the internet connectivity, engineering and technology laboratories in their institutions for facilitating online classes of students; and

3) Essential academic administration services- registrars and other academic administrators in charge of grades, assessment, and student credentialing in preparation for completion of the academic year or semester.

“The private educational institution shall deploy skeletal workforce only when work from home arrangements are not possible, and shall be subject to compliance with all applicable rules of DOLE on work arrangements during ECQ, and relevant IATF Guidelines on health and safety protocols,” De Vera said.

De Vera added that as as part of the government bureaucracy, “SUCs are expected to be fully operational, with a skeleton workforce on-site and the remainder under alternative work arrangements as approved by the head of agency” pursuant to No. 5 of the Omnibus Guidelines on the Implementation of Community Quarantine in the Philippines with Amendments as of March 28, 2021.

In the meantime, CHED also “strongly advises HEIs to refer and continue to observe the instructions” stipulated in this and previously issued CHED Advisories including numbers 1 to 7.

The Advisory No. 8, De Vera added, should also be “read in conjunction with CHED COVID-19 Advisories Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7” issued earlier.  

“Applicable provisions of previously issued Advisories not otherwise discussed below remain enforced,” De Vera said. “Periods in previously issued Advisories for transitioning from Academic Year (AY) 2019-2020 shall be applied with similar effect to transitioning from AY 2020-2021, whenever applicable,” he added.

Similarly, De Vera stressed that periods in previous Advisories covering AY 2020-2021 “shall apply in like manner to AY 2021-2022, whenever applicable.”