Quake-hit areas to hold classes in tents, village halls

MANILA, Philippines - Thousands of students will be forced to attend classes in tents, village halls and chapels as several schools in Bohol and Cebu were damaged following the 7.2 magnitude earthquake last week, an education official said yesterday.

Jocelyn Saw, coordinator of the Department of Education’s disaster risk reduction and management office, said DepEd personnel were in the process of identifying alternative learning sites for the affected students.

“These might be barangay halls or chapels that can be used as temporary classrooms,” Saw told The STAR in a telephone interview.

She said classes in quake-devastated areas may be held until Christmas or even after the regular March cut-off to make up for lost time.

“We have a policy of 180 school calendar days but when a disaster happens we have to conduct make-up classes,” she said.

The DepEd official said most classes are scheduled to resume on Nov. 4, but classes in Tagbilaran and Bohol remain suspended until further notice.

According to the DepEd, more than 900 schools in Bohol and Cebu were damaged by the tremor, affecting 1.7 million students.

Initial reports said that more than 2,000 classrooms were damaged.

Saw said some schools would be required to share facilities because of the classroom shortage.

She raised concern about how the disruption to students might affect their motivation - a problem identified by studies of the New Zealand education system following the earthquake in Christchurch in 2011.

“That’s a concern depending on how the disaster has affected them,” Saw said. “Not only in academic, we also saw a drop in sports performance.”

The education system in New Zealand experienced significant disruption following. the 6.3-magnitude earthquake that hit the South Island city of Christchurch on Feb. 22, 2011 that left 185 people dead.

The government earmarked NZ$1 billion (P36 billion) over 10 years to restoring the education system in Christchurch and surrounding districts.

Saw said the total cost of damage to schools in the Visayas was estimated at P205 million, but engineers have not yet assessed half of the schools in the area.

“We still have P300 million with us from our quick-response fund and if ever that is not enough, the agency will utilize its savings,” she said.

(Jonathan Carson is a visiting journalist from New Zealand.)