Lack of facilities hounds first day of classes in public schools

Several public schools faced shortage in classrooms, and even tables and chairs, as School Year 2023-2024 officially started on Tuesday.

At San Jose Elementary School in Rodriguez, Rizal, some parents pitched in money just to provide tables and chairs for their children who will go to school.

Parent–Teacher Association president Evelyn Nunez said the father of her grandchild did not buy his medicine just to contribute for the materials that would be used to build the classroom furniture, based on a report of GMA Integrated News’ Maki Pullido on Unang Balita.

“Para mabili ko ng monoblocks ang bata, at saka panggamit nga dito sa gagawing table,” Nunez said.

(This is so that I can buy monoblocks for the child, and then for the materials that will be used to make them a table.)

As the San Jose Elementary School houses 4,000 students, around 80 students had to crowd in each classroom.

Comfort rooms without flush and dysfunctional faucets were also a challenge for the school.

At the Nagpayong Elementary School in Pasig City, principal Emelita Medina said the number of learners this year increased to around 11,800 from 11,600 in the previous school year.

This is why she said she expects more teachers to come in to cater to more students.

“Sa ngayon, sapat naman ang ating classrooms. Na-maximize natin ang number of classrooms and of course the number of teachers. Kaya lang, dumadami ang ating populasyon, so we are expecting for additional teachers,” Medina said.

(Right now our classrooms are enough. We have maximized the number of classrooms and teachers. It's just that our population is increasing, so we are expecting additional teachers.)

Nagpayong Elementary School now holds 100% face-to-face classes. Thermal scanners, washing facilities, and alcohols were set in place as health measures.

At the Pantay Tamurong Elementary School in Caoayan, Ilocos Sur, teachers had to break their backs to clean the classrooms that were flooded due to the recent typhoons.

Modular classes will be implemented in the school for the first week of classes, while learners are expected to come back for in-person classes next week.

Shifting of classes in the morning and afternoon, meanwhile, has to be implemented at the Batasan Hills National High School due to lack of classrooms.

Principal Eladio Escolano said that they lack 54 classrooms as enrollees soar from 17,900 last year to 18,300 this year.

“Another strategy diyan, ‘yung approach na ginawa namin ‘yung blended nga. Ibig sabihin ng blended, ang bata ay papasok ng tatlong araw sa paaralan at dalawang araw sila sa bahay through the use of modules and other books,” he said.

(Another strategy or approach that we did is blended learning. This means that the student will go to school for three days and they will be at home for two days and will learn through the use of modules and other books.)

Several classrooms had to be divided in two at the President Corazon Aquino Elementary School to address the classroom shortage.

The school would also conduct shifting of classes to cater to the 8,700 students from Kinder to Grade 6.

“Ginawan namin ng paraan para ang lahat ng bata ay ma-accommodate namin. In big rooms, meron ‘yung ginawan namin na partition but we assigned that to small kids like Grade 1 and Grade 2 para sa ganoon ay kasya,” principal Wilma Rosal said.

(We made a way for all children to be accommodated. In big rooms, we made a partition but we assigned that to small kids like Grade 1 and Grade 2 so that they would fit.)

At the San Gabriel Elementary School in Macabebe, Pampanga, makeshift bridges need to be built and boats need to be used as the school remains flooded.

“‘Pag nakikita namin na tumataas na ang tubig at ‘pag malapit na ang pasukan, naka-ready na ‘yung tabla namin para gawing tulay para sa mga bata,” principal Eufemia Castro said.

(When we see that the flood is rising and when the school is about to open, our board is ready to make a bridge for the children.)

“Ang baha ay nagtatagal ‘yan ng anim hanggang walong buwan,” she added.

(The flood lasts for six to eight months.)

Weather conditions

At a press conference, DepEd Assistant Secretary Francis Cesar Bringas said that one of the biggest challenges that the DepEd faces today is the weather conditions in some regions which prompted several schools to push back the implementation of in-person classes.

As to lack of school facilities, he said that this problem is being addressed through the institutionalization of blended learning or usage of alternative delivery modes.

“We are trying to look into the problem of shortage of facilities by shifting our attention into how we are going to redefine what learning spaces are,” Bringas said.

“It is no longer limited to just the four walls of the classrooms, but even the homes can also serve as learning spaces kasi boundless na ang classrooms natin ngayon [our classrooms are boundless now],” he added.

Teachers

Bringas admitted that there are schools that still suffer from shortage of teachers, but some schools also have excess teachers.

“Kailangan lang talaga sa ating schools division offices ay makita ang picture…so that we can have equitable distribution of teachers within their areas of jurisdiction. Until then, we can only surmise that hindi ganon kadami ang ating shortage as it is apparently seen in the raw reports, but it has to be placed in the context of a proper teacher deployment analysis,” he explained.

He added that 10,000 new teaching positions were added annually and the priority for such are schools with high shortage of teachers and schools in far flung areas.

Enrollees

A total of 22,676,964 students in both public and private schools, including State Universities and Colleges, were enrolled as of Monday, August 28.

Most of the enrollees came from Calabarzon at 3.4 million. This was followed by the Central Luzon with 2.5 million enrollees, National Capital Region with 2.4 million, and Western Visayas with 1.7 million.

The Department of Education (DepEd) is targeting around 28.8 million enrollees this school year.

Bringas said that the enrollment data is still a running number as schools continue to upload data in the Learner Information System.

“The final count will only be established once all reports are in. That will take around 2 weeks. And the ongoing late enrolment contributes to longer time of having the final number,” he told reporters in a Viber message. 

Bringas said that DepEd would still accept late enrollees this week until next week. — RSJ/GMA Integrated News