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BY NEIL ALCOBER, TMT
JUNE 02, 2014
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TOO MANY STUDENTS, TOO FEW CLASSROOMS
Luz Almeda, regional director for the National Capital Region (NCR)
office of the Department of Education (DepEd), attributed the
overcrowding to the dense population in cities.
“The problem is how we can further reduce the class size. Meron
talaga tayo oversized [classrooms]. Overflowing talaga. We hope the
city governments can donate lots for the new school buildings. Hindi
na kami tumatanggap ng donation for one-storey school building,”
Almeda said.
She said they had to adopt the double shifting scheme in Caloocan
City to accomodate all enrollees. The first shift is from 6 a.m. to 12
noon and the second is from 12 noon to 6 p.m.
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Almeda said the top 20 schools in Metro Manila that are highly
congested were those in the cities of Quezon (6), Las Piñas (2),
Caloocan (4), Malabon (3) and Quezon, Taguig (2), Parañaque (2),
and Marikina (1).
Jesus Mateo, DepEd Assistant Secretary for Planning, said the first
day of classes went smoothly despite the perennial complaints mostly
from parents.
“There are schools in Samar and Leyte that until now have not rebuilt
even a single classroom. Still, some of them are used as evacuation
centers particularly in Tacloban City and Tanauan, Leyte,” he added.
Youth and students led by LFS and other youth groups marched to
Mendiola along with members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers
(ACT) to denounce the government’s disregard of problems in the
education sector.
“No matter how many lies and tricks they take out of their sleeve, the
government will remain unsuccessful in denying the fact that the
system is problematic. Parents, students, and teachers are all swamped
under the deplorable quality of education,” Charlotte Velasco, the
group’s national chairperson, said.
Peaceful
The Philippine National Police (PNP) also said the opening of classes
was generally peaceful.
PNP spokesman Senior Supt. Wilben Mayor said police regional
offices nationwide reported as of noontime Monday that the situation
was normal in their areas.
Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay set aside P1.3 billion of the P2-billion
budget for education to support public school students from pre-school
to high school.
Binay said they alloted P520 million for ‘Project Free’ this school
year.