“We are gradually earning dividends from our investment in public education and we have our hardworking DepEd family and our private sector partners to thank for.”
by Ducky Paredes
Two things of which we have too much are typhoons and population. Nowhere is this more prominent a problem than in our school-building program. Each year, it is the same story. We always need more classrooms; each year, the school population grows by several hundred thousands. Each year, we build more and more classrooms.; yet, we always need even more rooms for even more schoolchildren,
DepEd built more than 44,000 classrooms from 2004 to 2007. Still, we lack classrooms in our public schools system. Despite all the new rooms, the DepEd adopted a policy of double shifting that. A classroom is used in shifts by two classes of close to 60 pupils.
The DepEd’s school building program, financed by a P3.76 billion budget constructs “red” and “black” schools. “Red” schools are those which have more than 56 students per classroom. “Black” schools are those without permanent structures or are temporary in nature.
But, Education Secretary Jesli Lapus has an additional problem. He has to rebuild, repair and rehabilitate 223 public school buildings destroyed or damaged by Typhoon Karen which hit Northern Luzon Wednesday, August 20, 2008. The typhoon inflicted losses estimated at P56.8 million.
The Secretary said the following areas need to be assisted: Region 1, with 100 schools that sustained major damage costing P1115.2 million; Region 2, with 62 schools, at a cost of P19.2 million; and Cordillera Administrative Region, with 61 schools at P22.4 million.
Lapus has asked the National Disaster Coordinating Council for funds to rehabilitate the affected schools. Because of the many storms last year, the department had already used up the P300 million allotted for the repair of typhoon-damaged schools.
Lapus has also ordered the release of a bigger budget for the department’s “disaster quick response fund” for next year to P1 billion.
In view of the continuing shortage of classrooms, aggravated by the damage wrought by the successive typhoons that hit the country, the DepEd told school officials all over the country to strictly implement the double-shift policy as a means of accommodating more students. This means all schools facing classroom shortages need to hold separate classes in the morning and in the afternoon.
The policy was reiterated by Undersecretary Ramon Bacani, who announced that exceptions to the double-shift policy are only when: existing classes and classrooms are adequate only for a single shift operation; or there are no teachers available for the second shift classes; or no electricity for classes that may extend to the evening; or the distance between the residence of the students and the school.
These exceptions only point out other related problems that the DepEd has that still comes down to population and weather.
In addition, we find that of 80,000 public elementary and high school buildings, about 30 percent or 24,000 are already old and poorly maintained. This is according to a study conducted in 2005 by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
DepEd has already abandoned school buildings found to be unsafe by the DPWH or town and city engineers. According to the Secretary, some 60 school buildings in Manila alone have been demolished.
Lapus cited a World Bank study that says about 15 percent of old schools need to be repaired and rehabilitated. The repairs will cost about P48 billion. DepEd repaired close to 10,000 classrooms last year.
Lapus cites the assistance and contribution DepEd received from its Adopt-A-School Program, particularly in the construction of more than 44,000 classrooms.
The Adopt-A-School Program gave DepEd a total of P4.05 billion in assistance from the private sector in 2007, a 10-fold increase from the P400 million in 2003.
Lapus hopes that the bigger P149 billion budget this year will further improve the performance of students in the public school system. The bigger budget allowed the DepEd to improve the amount for the training and development of teachers and principals to P1 billion from just P598 million prior to 2006.
Aside from creating 53,296 new teaching positions, this also enabled the DepEd to achieve a 100 percent compliance of a textbook-pupil ratio in the core subjects of English, Math, Science, Filipino and History. The results have been positive and very encouraging.
Lapus points to the March 2008 National Achievement Test (NAT) for some 1.64 million graduating elementary school students that showed an eight percent improvement over the 2007 tests. The passing rate increased to 64.81 percent against the 59.9 percent in 2007.
The results also showed that the number of students with low mastery (scores of just 15 percent to 34 percent) decreased from 8.18 percent in 2007 to only 3.67 percent in 2008.
Lapus attributed the improvement to reforms that were implemented in basic education and to more focused policy directions that were made possible by the increased budgetary allocation from the national government. Lapus expects to attain the 75 percent passing rate by 2010.
“We are gradually earning dividends from our investment in public education and we have our hardworking DepEd family and our private sector partners to thank for,” Lapus said.
Still, if we could have less children and fewer typhoons, things would go easier all around.
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The Manila-Bicol Golfers Association will hold its most important tournament of the year tomorrow Friday, August 29, 2008 at the Navy Golf Course. The proceeds of this tournament will go towards civic and religious charities in Naga City which hosts the Penafrancia Festival, the grandest religious feast in honor of the Virgin Mother in the Bicol Region.
This is a cause worth supporting and its awards ceremonies is always something to look forward to. Everyone is invited to play and contribute to the charities that aree supported by the Manila-Bicol Golfers Association
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The Federation of Philippine Amateur Senior Golfers, Inc. will hold a fun tournament at Capitol Golf and Country Club also on Friday, August 28, 2008. Tee-off will be from 6:00 to 8:00 in the morning, The FPASGI holds two kinds of tournaments – the San Miguel Sugar-Free Coffee Senior Tour and the fun tournaments.
While only members play in the SMC tournament, guests of FPASGI members are allowed to play in the fun tournaments.
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hvp 08.27.08)
One Comment
dear madam or sir,
i would like to report our teacher in chemistry 3 in jaro national high school iloilo city,philippinesbecause she didnt start her lessons since the start of the school days in june
her name is Mrs.deolida d. villaluna she is a teacher in chemistry, he only told us to copy the lessons in a book and study that in home bacause he will be given us a test tommorow , they told us the we will make our own test questions in our comming 3rd grading examination, he only gets shes wage in the scholol she only sits in his table
i am hoping for your action,thank you so much.
sincerly yours
mike,students of jaro
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