Toilet facilities improved in NCR public schools- DepEd

MANILA, Philippines — No more 100 or so high school students sharing one toilet in public schools. Department of Education-National Capital Region Director Teresita Domalanta on Wednesday, said that new comfort rooms have been constructed and existing facilities have been repaired and renovated to solve the ridiculous toilet-to-student ratio in public schools. “Marami tayong naipagawang toilets na magagamit ngayong darating na pasukan samantalang yung mga sira ay naipaayos na natin," said Domalanta, without giving exact figures. [We have constructed plenty of toilets and they are ready to use this coming schoolyear and we have repaired the existing ones that need repair.] This was in response to a report by the militant Alliance of Concerned Teachers’ (ACT) last year that 51 elementary pupils share 1 toilet bowl while in the secondary level, 102 students share just one toilet. ACT National President Antonio Tinio said the statistics showed that the Philippine government has been failing to subscribe to international standard toilet to pupil ratio (TPR) of 1:25 for girls and 1:30 for boys. The most unsanitary school comfort rooms in the country are found in Metro Manila and in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), the report said. Previous reports said that based on the same study, the TPR in Metro Manila is 1:143 and 1:114 in high school and elementary, respectively. In the ARMM, the TPR is 1:171 in elementary and 1:250 in high schools. The worst case of low TPR is recorded in Silangan Elementary School Annex in Taguig, which in 2007, had only one toilet bowl. A total of 2,031 pupils were enrolled in the elementary school last year. This was followed by the General T.De Leon Elementary School in Valenzuela whose 5, 687 students has to make do with five toilet bowls and one urinal. Classroom shortage ‘a thing of the past’ Apart from toilets, DepEd also looks into tapping more sources to address classroom shortage in public schools in NCR. Earlier, Domalanta said classroom shortage “may be a thing of the past" already, as NCR only lack 282 classrooms, and more than 1, 000 new classrooms have been constructed since last year. “We have fewer problems with the classroom shortage unlike in the past. Based on our records we only fall short of 282 classrooms in NCR," said Domalanta. In 2008, 1,552 new classes were opened in response to the the 2,964 classroom shortage, in 2008, DepEd-NCR said. DepEd's Physical Facilities and Schools Engineering Division reported NCR to be included among the top regions in the country with high classroom shortage. Other regions included Region 4-A, the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), Region 7 and Region 9. DepEd said it might resort to funding student’s private education to lessen the students’ population in public schools. The Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASPE) might help augment the shortage in public school classrooms in time for school opening on June 1, said DepEd. Under the said program, students from Metro Manila will receive P10, 000 while those studying in the province will receive P5,000 financial assistance when they qualified and enrolled in private schools, according to DepEd. Also, the department of education on Wednesday said it will implement “double shift" class schedules in selected areas in Metro Manila. Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said in a press conference that DepEd-NCR will still implement the “double shift" and even the “triple shift" class schedules in areas like Caloocan to address the lack of enough classrooms. Lapus added that the schedule will only be temporary as they tap resources for additional classrooms where there are “double shift" cases. The director also said they might use the Special Education Fund collected by the local government unit (LGU) for the construction of new school buildings. - Jodee Agoncillo, GMANews.TV