QUEZON City District 5 Councilor Allan Butch Francisco has introduced a measure to adopt a radio frequency identification or RFID tag to track of the movement of elementary and high school students in public schools in real time.
He authored Resolution No. SP-7179, urging Mayor Herbert Bautista to adopt an RFID card that automatically sends text messages or casts alert to the students’ parents or registered guardians about the whereabouts of their children.
Francisco said it is high time the city’s public schools must follow the suit of several private schools in Metro Manila implementing such student identification cards.
“Whereas, aside from the safety concern of parents, the program may also help to combat the phenomenon of school drop-outs due to absences, cutting classes and tardiness because parents will have the way to monitor the whereabouts of their children,” the resolution read.
“The program is at no cost for the students and the parents,” Francisco told the Standard in an interview. “I am trying to negotiate with a network provider.”
Under the system, a student must swipe his or her RFID card into a special machine to be located at the school gate.
“During dismissal time, parents are also notified if their children have already swiped out to leave the school premises. The system will also send a text message to the parents on the cancellation of classes and [about] important school announcements,” the measure said.
According to Francisco, cellphones and other electronic gadgets for mobile communications have become a necessity, and that most people cannot live without a mobile phone.
“In fact, almost half of the cellphone users today carry with them a second or third phone for convenience,” he said, adding “therefore, we must take advantage of the technology to keep in touch with our children at school.”
Meanwhile, Quezon City was named as an Outstanding Local Government Unit for National TB (tuberculosis) Program in the National Capital Region.
The Department of Health-NCR said Quezon City recorded a 91-percent TB treatment success rate and a 90 percent TB case detection rate.
Quezon City eclipsed the cities of Manila and Caloocan in the above a million population category in 2016, said QC Health Department NTP coordinator Dr. Marizel B. Wong.
The Quezon City government under the Bautista administration has undergone a massive improvement in health programs and services.
The city’s 65 health centers accept not only drug-susceptible tuberculosis cases but also drug-resistant TB patients for treatment.
City Ordinance 2573-2017 mandates all day care centers in Quezon City to conduct Tuberculin Skin Test (TST) among day-care students annually.
Quezon City offers free consultation, medicine, sputum smear tests, GeneXpert TB tests that detect drug resistant TB, and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) screening.
DOH-NCR also named Quezon City as the Outstanding LGU by the city’s exemplary performance in implementing the Dangerous Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment Program and National AIDS/STI Prevention and Control Program.
The Quezon City Reproductive Health and Family Planning Program received the purple award and a recognition from the National Voluntary Blood Services Program for achieving a one percent blood donation ratio among QC’s total population in 2016.
Quezon City-based non-government organization, the Payatas Orione Foundation, Inc., has earned the Outstanding NGO for Directly Observed Treatment Short (DOTS).
