Education Secretary Jesli Lapus said yesterday that DepEd’s efforts to improve public schools would bear fruit with better academic performance of students and result in a banner year.
“This is going to be a banner year for Philippine education. Our efforts... are going to translate into meaningful improvements in the academic performance of millions of Filipino students who will troop to school today,” Lapus said.
“The steadfast allegiance of all our education stakeholders has united the entire nation towards the cause of basic education in our country. Led by no less than... President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, this all out war against the education crisis is now in full swing. And the entire nation has been responding to her call for support for our public schools,” Lapus said.
With a higher budget for 2007, DepEd was able to get funds to hire 16,390 additional public school teachers, expand its Government Assistance to Students and Teachers in Private Education (GASTPE) program wherein DepEd gives students in private schools a P4,000 subsidy to stay enrolled there and prevent a migration to already congested public schools, arrange for the construction of 6,000 additional classrooms that will hopefully be completed by the end of the year, among others.
DepEd is projected to have also generated P2.5 billion in donated “man-hours” and minor construction materials with the massive support raised among the public during the Brigada Eskwela or National School Maintenance Week.
“On the eve of what we see as a groundbreaking year for basic education in the Philippines, I thank all our Brigada Eskwela volunteers for their participation in this year’s National School Maintenance Week and all our Oplan Balik Eskwela partner agencies for their efforts in ensuring the smooth opening of classes. At the same time, I call on all our stakeholders to continue to help us in improving all our schools,” Lapus said.
With the onset of the rainy season and a forecast of possible afternoon and early evening showers this week, Secretary Lapus has instructed school officials to take all the necessary precautions to keep the opening of classes as orderly as possible and ensure students’ safety.
“The safety of our children comes first,” Lapus stressed. “Let’s all be on our toes to ensure that they get to school safely.”
“Readiness for any eventuality reduces the possible risks to our students,” he added. “Our inter-agency convergence team will be on full alert to ensure the smooth opening of classes.”
Almost 20 million public and private elementary and high school students are expected to troop back to school today.
According to DepEd figures, of the 19.675 million students going to class today, 2,365,840 students will be going to some 8,350 private schools while 17,310,090 students will go to DepEd’s 42,722 public schools all over the country.
Of the 17.31 million public school students, 12,181,210 are elementary school students while 5,128,880 are high school students.
Of the 2,365,840 private school students, 1.06 million will be in elementary while 1.3 million will be in high school.
The DepEd said that there were 198,030 new enrollees or incoming grade 1 students this year.
DepEd figures placed the number of private schools in the country at 8,350 with 4,901 of these being elementary schools and 3,449 high schools.
Due to the higher GASTPE budget and expansion of the program, it was learned that as many as 530,000 students in private schools are being subsidized by the DepEd. – With Helen Flores