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Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

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Quezon City = DATE: MAY 27 ad
* TIME: 3p
EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS eS

First Regular Session

nouse sit no. 6837

Introduced by
ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. FRANCE L. CASTRO,
BAYAN MUNA Party-List Rep. CARLOS ISAGANI T, ZARATE,
Rep. FERDINAND GAITE and Rep. EUFEMIA C. CULLAMAT,
GABRIELA Women’s Party Rep. ARLENE D. BROSAS,
and KABATAAN Party-List Rep. SARAH JANE |. ELAGO

AN ACT
PROVIDING FOR ONE DOCTOR AND ONE NURSE
FOR EVERY PUBLIC ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL,

EXPLANATORY NOTE

More than 27 million Filipino children and youth—the latest estimated population in
public elementary and high schools—spend a third of their daily lives at school. For many,
especially those in far-flung areas where public hospitals and clinics are even rarer than schools,
the school is the first and the most accessible point of contact with health services. Public
schools, therefore, have the potential of being the place where children can be provided with
Preventive, curative, and supportive health interventions.

Recognizing this potential, the World Health Organization, as early as 1995 through
Global Schoo! Health Initiative, has formally urged its member states including the Philippines to
make every school an “entry point for health promotion and a location for health intervention”;
to develop policies, legislation, and guidelines which are supportive of school health; and to
provide teachers and school staff with the necessary support to enable them to promote school
health.

The provision of a licensed doctor and nurse for every public school is one way to
comply with these recommendations, and will ensure appropriate, adequate, and professional
medical attention for the Filipino student.

This bill also answers a constant concern of public school teachers: They are often given
loads or assignments to act as “teacher-nurses” for the school and the ones usually called to
respond whenever a student is injured by accident or otherwise. Aside from adding to teachers’
tasks and contributing to their overworked situation, this practice exposes teachers to



accusations of not giving the proper treatment or aggravating injuries. Worse, they are
vulnerable to charges of illegal practice of medicine or nursing and at risk of losing their own
license to teach. Students are also exposed in this set-up, as they do not receive the necessary
and adequate medical response.

Various laws and administrative issuances of the Department of the Department of
Education and the Commission on Higher Education, such as the DepEd School Health Manual,
the DepEd Educational Facilities Manual, the Manual of Regulations for Private Schools, and the
‘Manual of Regulations for Private Higher Education, to name a few, require private schools in
basic and tertiary education to provide health facilities and services. There should therefore be
no reason for the absence of doctors and nurses in public schools in basic education.

Doctors and nurses directly attending to children where they are found—at school—is a
standard contemplated by a genuine universal health care program, and a just and guaranteed
investment of taxpayers’ funds. Furthermore, this will go a long way towards improving both
health and education, two of the most basic rights of the Filipino.

This global direction of making schools as “entry points for health promotion and a
locations for health intervention” is even more urgent now that our country is in the middle of a
fight against the novel coronavirus—anticipated to be a long-term one—and government is
considering the reopening of schools. A return to the “new normal” should pertain to a return
to what is ideal, especially where the best interests of children are concerned, and not simply a
return to what has been, which is far from ideal. Approval of this bill will guarantee that medical
solutions are indeed front and center in the government's anti-COVID response.

For the foregoing reasons, urgent approval of thi

ACT Teachers Party-List

RS &

Rep. CARLOS ISAGANI T. ZARATE Rep. FERDINAND GAITE
BAYAN MUNA Party-List BAYAN MUNA Party-List
Rep. EUFEMIA C. CULLAMAT Rep/ARLENE D. BROSAS

BAYAN MUNA Party-List GABRIELA Women’s Party

Rep. SARAH JANE |. ELAGO



Republic of the Philippines
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Quezon City

EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
First Regular Session

nouse sit wo._6837

Introduced by
ACT Teachers Party-List Rep. FRANCE L. CASTRO,
BAYAN MUNA Party-List Rep. CARLOS ISAGANI T. ZARATE,
Rep. FERDINAND GAITE and Rep. EUFEMIA C. CULLAMAT,
GABRIELA Women’s Party Rep. ARLENE D. BROSAS,
and KABATAAN Party-List Rep. SARAH JANE |. ELAGO

AN ACT
PROVIDING FOR ONE DOCTOR AND ONE NURSE
FOR EVERY PUBLIC ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOL,

Section 1. Short Title. This Act shall be known as the Doctors and Nurses in Schools Act of
2020.

Section 2. Declaration of Policy. The State shall protect the rights and promote the welfare
of the child in accordance with the 1987 Constitution and the United Nations Convention on
the Rights of the Child, particularly by ensuring that the school, one of the core institutions
charged with the development of the youth, has enough personnel and facilities to fully
promote the child’s right to health.

Section 3. Doctors and Nurses in Public Schools. Upon effectivity of this Act, the
Department of Education (DepEd) shall ensure that there is at least one doctor and
‘one nurse, duly licensed by the Professional Regulation Commission, stationed in each large
public elementary and high school, and one doctor and one nurse per cluster of small
schools. The DepEd, in coordination with the Department of Health (DOH), shall categ
schools into large and small schools considering the most manageable doctor-student and
nurse-student ratios.

After a year of implementation and in consideration of the annual increase of the
student population, School Heads shall undertake periodic evaluations as to the necessity of
providing for additional doctors and nurses in their respective schools and shall make the
corresponding recommendations to DepEd.


For purposes of this Act, the provision of school doctors and nurses shall include the
provision of the standard equipment or facilities for them to respond to emergencies and
diseases common to the immediate community, such as the standard health and/or
emergency kits.

Section 4. Implementing Rules and Regulations. Within thirty (30) days after effectivity of
this Act, the DepEd, in consultation with the Department of Budget and Management and
the DOH, shall promulgate the rules and regulations necessary for its implementation.
These shall include the categorization of schools and the doctor-student and nurse-student
ratios as provided in Section 3.

Section 5. Appropriations. Upon effectivity of this Act, the amounts necessary for its
implementation shall be charged against the savings of the DepEd. Thereafter, the funds
shall be provided in the annual General Appropriations Act.

Section 6. Separability Clause. Should any provision of this Act be held unconstitutional, all
other provisions not affected thereby shall continue to be in full force and effect.

Section 7. Repealing Clause. All laws, decrees, rules and regulations, and other i
inconsistent with this Act are hereby repealed or amended accordingly.

Section 8 Effectivity Clause. This Act shall take fifteen (15) days after its publication in
the Official Gazette or one (1) newspaper of general circulation.
Approved,