Several pupils in the Cebu third district were found to be below the normal weight based on the Consolidated Nutritional Status released by the provincial office of the Department of Education.
DepEd school division superintendent Serena Uy reported that in the pre-elementary and elementary departments, there are 8,241 pupils in the district who were found to be underweight.
Of the 8,241 pupils, 4,840 are females while 3,401 are males.
Of the nine school districts, which comprise Barili I and II, Aloguinsan, Pinamungajan, Balamban I and II, Asturias, and Tuburan I and II, the Pinamungajan district has the most number of underweight pupils with 1,940.
The report said the first graders in the nine school districts have the most number of underweight pupils totaling 2,180. This was followed by grade six pupils (1,545), grade two (1,403), grade four (1,210), grade three (1,154) and grade five (1,038).
The pre-elementary has 287 pupils recorded to be underweight.
Third district Rep. Pablo John Garcia said it is very difficult for hungry kids to learn in school. Because of this, he said he would allocate some funds to alleviate the children’s nutritional status.
Garcia said education has endless problems but admitted he cannot solve all of them. But at least he said he would focus on the provision of teacher’s training, especially in Math, Science and English.
It can be recalled that five elementary public schools and a national high school in the district were ranked as the worst performing schools in the country during the National Achievement Test last year.
Alarmed by such result, the lawmaker had called for an education summit last week in which some measures were discussed to arrest the declining standard of education in the district. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/LPM