College opening smooth

MANILA, Philippines - Students trooped to colleges and universities all over the country yesterday, with classes opening smoothly, according to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).

The commission estimated the population of college students at two million.

CHED said there are 1,793 colleges and universities in the country, of which 325 are in Metro Manila.

Catherine Castañeda, CHED National Capital Region director, said most colleges and universities in Metro Manila opened classes for academic year 2011-2012 yesterday, while a few opened last Monday.

“Many will open tomorrow, and we don’t think there will be a problem,” Castaneda told The STAR.

She attributed the orderly opening of classes, especially in Metro Manila, to the CHED’s early preparations and

coordination with school administrators.

They also inspected student dormitories in areas near schools to see if these facilities have fire safety and disaster preparedness mechanisms.

Castañeda said CHED also urged school administrations to look into the structural safety of their buildings and ensure they conduct fire and earthquake drills.

Substandard

Meanwhile, sub-standard education is going on in the thousands of public kindergarten schools set up by the Department of Education (DepEd) as they start their ambitious K (Kindergarten) +12 Basic Education Curriculum this school year.

Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio said just as they had feared, congestion brought by a shortage on classrooms and salary for kindergarten teachers, has made the “universal kindergarten” program a “miserable failure.”

“They (DepEd) were not really prepared in terms of budget and resources,” Tinio told The STAR.

“As we have warned them (DepEd), they don’t have the budget and resources to implement universal kindergarten program.”

“Now, we are seeing the consequences in the dismal conditions in these public kindergarten schools,” Tinio said.

He noted that the usual problem in the new kindergarten schools was the standard classroom at 48 square meters being divided into two classrooms to enable two kindergarten classes in a three-hour shift and the lack of school chairs.

Teachers in these kindergarten schools, he said, also bear their own hardship with the “insulting P3,000 honorarium pay they will get for teaching two or up to three shifts of kindergarten classes.”

“Because of the low pay they can offer, DepEd was only able to get kindergarten teachers who are unlicensed so it raises questions on the quality of pre-school education they can give the students,” Tinio said.

“In the Quirino Elementary School in Project 2, the kindergarten classrooms look like cages. You will pity the children because they look like chicken crowding in changes. And they also have up to three shifts with one kindergarten class having up to more than 50 in a class,” France Castro, ACT secretary- general, said.

Castro said that the absence of an adequate number of chairs and tables force students to sit on the floor.

Aside from Quirino Elementary School, Castro said they also went to the Corazon Aquino Elementary School (formerly Batasan Hills Elementary School) in Batasan Hills, and Payatas-B Elementary School, also in Quezon City, and found the same dismal conditions.