MANILA, Philippines - Compared to previous years, the opening of classes on Monday is orderly but the Department of Education concedes that the problem of overcrowding, among others, remains.
The DepED said it has almost met all the requirements to ensure that Filipino students get better education this school year.
Assistant Secretary Teresito Umali said the DepEd has already provided the needs of public schools nationwide.
"Wala naman po tayong naging masyadong problema dahil halos [lahat] ito ay natugunan na natin," Umali said in a radio interview.
The DepEd official said the usual concerns of the parents are still the collection of school fees and the transfer of their students from private schools to public schools.
Besides textbooks, Umali said the department has already addressed the lack of armchairs in schools.
However, Umali said some schools still need more classrooms to alleviate overcrowding owing to the huge turn out of students on the first day of school on Monday.
Umali cited the case of Ilugin Elementary School in Pinagbuhatan, Pasig City, which was visited by Education Secretary Armin Monday morning.
During his visit, Luistro observed that cramped classrooms have forced school administrators to adopt three shifts instead of two to accommodate the more than 3,000 students.
As this developed, school principal Emelita Medina said they hope to decongest the classrooms with the construction of new classrooms by the end of June.
To date, the classroom to student ratio at Ilugin Elementary School is at 1:50.
On Monday, the DepED estimated that around 21 million public elementary and secondary school students trooped to various schools in the country.
More teachers
To further address the lack of tutors in public schools, the DedEd is also set to hire an additional 3,000 elementary teachers this year.
"Maghahire tayo ng elementary teachers na pwedeng magturo sa kindergarten," Luistro said.
There are about 1.8 million pupils enrolled in kindergarten with only 30,000 teachers holding classes twice daily, Luistro added.
He said the ideal class size for kindergarten is one teacher to 25 pupils.
At present, there are only 3,700 regular kindergarten teachers.
"Iyong kakulangan na 23,000 ay bababa na kasi iyong ibang grade 1 teachers ay magtuturo na din sa kindergarten," Luistro said.