Peaceful but overcrowded

MANILA, Philippines - Classes were held in shifts while corridors, libraries and principals’ offices were used as classrooms in some areas as the school year opened yesterday.

Education and police officials reported that the first day of classes was generally peaceful and orderly for almost 21 million public elementary and high school students despite the usual problem of congestion in several Metro Manila schools where some classes have up to 80 students each.

“The opening of classes for this year was generally orderly, except for a few schools,” Education Assistant Secretary Jesus Mateo told journalists.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Alan Purisima said reports from the field showed no significant untoward incident.

Mateo said the Department of Education (DepEd) command center received 150 reports or complaints from May 26 to June 1, which was lower than the 316 reported during the same period in 2011.

Among the complaints and inquiries were those involving school fees and policies, requirements for transfer from private to public schools, and compulsory contributions such as those for Boy Scout membership.

Congested classrooms remained a problem in Quezon 
City and Caloocan City, DepEd-National Capital Region director Luz Almeda said.

She said some schools have “overflowing” classes of up to 80 students per classroom.

Pupils were divided into morning and afternoon classes and some school facilities like the principal’s office, libraries, and science laboratories and school corridors were converted into classrooms to address overcrowding.

Almeda said 82 percent of the 865 public schools in Metro Manila still implement the double-shift schedule due to overcrowding.

“There is a higher percentage of schools with single shift, from the 86 percent double-shift last year now it’s down to 82 percent and we expect it to decline further,” Almeda said.

Almeda said total enrollees in public schools in Metro Manila reached 2,172,576 this year or about .27 percent up from last year.

The DepEd is still open to the proposed three-day school week to help address congestion in public schools in Metro Manila, according to Mateo.

Normal situation

Senior Superintendent Wilben Mayor, spokesman for the PNP chief, said police regional offices 2, 3, 4B, 5, 7, 11, 12, Metro Manila and the Cordillera Administrative Region reported normal situation within their area of responsibility.

The only reported incident was at the Paaralang Elementarya ng Maitim Segundo in Barangay Maitim, 2nd East, Tagaytay, Cavite, where unidentified men took a digital camera worth P12,000 and the canteen’s earnings amounting to P700.

Chief Superintendent Raul Petrasanta, Police Regional Office-3 director, said the opening of classes in private and public schools in Central Luzon was also smooth and peaceful.

Chief Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac, PNP-Public Information office director, said they would set up more police assistance desks in Metro Manila and other urban areas complemented with foot and mobile patrols to ensure the safety of students.

“We have already set up 7,441 police assistance desks nationwide so far. This will be a place where both students and parents could go to report any untoward incident,” he said.

He said 18,500 policemen were tapped to secure the class opening for public elementary and high schools.

The PNP is also putting priority on incidents of bullying and street crimes.

Students who are being bullied could immediately seek assistance of policemen detailed at the PAD near their school.

Better this year

Despite the congested rooms, Almeda said the situation is better compared to previous years.

“The shortages in 2010, we’ve already addressed that,” she said following her inspection of the Batasan Hills National High School.

“We’re now having regular classes on the first day. Even the congested classrooms, they were able to handle (the big number of students),” she added.

She said the Batasan Hills National High School, President Corazon Aquino Elementary School and Payatas Elementary School in Quezon City divided their classrooms into two to reduce the size of students.

Batasan Hills principal Diego Amid said they had to divide 41 out of 98 classrooms in the school to accommodate more than 12,870 enrolled students.

The number, touted as one of the highest in the country, is higher than last year’s 12,239.

Amid said they expect the number of enrollees to swell to over 13,000 as they will still accommodate late enrollees.

He said Grade 7 students are using most of the divided classrooms.

No congestion

The Commonwealth Elementary School – one of the largest in the city – did not encounter overcrowding despite having 9,600 students. The school has 76 classrooms, with additional 16 to be constructed within the year.

Principal Rodolfo Modelo said teacher-student ratio is as high as 1:55 in Grades 3 to 6, but the classrooms remain comfortable for students as these were not divided.

The Valenzuela City government has started its busing system to decongest populated schools.

In Valenzuela City, 140 students from Malinta Elementary School-Pinalagad Annex were transported to Caruhatan West Elementary School, Mateo said.

More classrooms needed

Amid said they would need additional classrooms to accommodate the Grades 11 and 12 students with the impending full implementation of the K-12 Program by 2016.

He said enrollment at Batasan Hills National High School might reach over 19,000 once the two new levels are added.

More than 400,000 students are enrolled in Quezon City public elementary and high schools.

Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista had expressed hope that congestion would be addressed with the completion of new school buildings.

New school buildings

At least 140,000 students returned to school in new public school buildings in Taguig City.

A four-story building with 32 classrooms was constructed at the Taguig Elementary School in Barangay Sta. Ana, while a four-story building with 20 classrooms is under construction at Eusebio Santos Elementary School in Barangay San Miguel.

A four-story building with 12 classrooms is also being constructed at Silangan Elementary School while improvements for the four-story school building that will soon house 36 classrooms for students of the Senator Renato Compañero Cayetano Memorial Science High School are ongoing.

DepEd Taguig-Pateros spearheaded the construction of school buildings in Signal Village Elementary School, Signal Village National High School, Upper Bicutan Elementary School, Upper Bicutan National High School, Western Bicutan National High School and Bagumbayan National High School.

Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano said the local government hired 350 new teachers, in addition to 238 hired by the DepEd.

Earlier, the local government also procured 320 new air-conditioning units to be installed in the city’s 34 public schools.

The Parañaque city government also announced the opening of four new school buildings and the offering of bachelor’s degree courses at the city-funded Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

One of the new school buildings is at Tambo Elementary School, which was inaugurated early this month.

The Barangay Marcelo Green Elementary School, Don Bosco National High School and the Barangay San Isidro Elementary School are also set to open this school year.

Parañaque City Mayor Edwin Olivarez also announced the opening in July of the Parañaque City College, which will initially offer technical and vocational courses.

No traffic jams

There were no reported traffic jams as classes resumed yesterday, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) assistant general manager for operations Emerson Carlos said.

He said the agency was prepared with the deployment of 1,600 traffic constables at the vicinity of various school zones in Metro Manila.

He said the MMDA would deploy additional personnel for next week’s opening of private schools.

Classes suspended in Albay

In Albay, Gov. Joey Salceda has ordered the suspension of classes in 13 public elementary schools in Legazpi City due to the power outage in the past six days.

The rotating power interruption occurred after a transformer at the Bitano station collapsed on May 28.

“The brownout is putting the pupils at risk of getting sick inside classrooms which have no electric fans,” said Salceda.

Agnes Yanson, Legazpi City Schools Division planning officer II, said some 6,600 pupils in public elementary schools, including preschoolers, were affected at Buragwis Elementary School, Dapdap, Puro and Lamba.

Another 4,813 pupils were also affected at the Bogtong Elementary School, Rawis, Bigaa, Arimbay, Bitano, Dita, Bagong Abre, San Joaquin and Padang.

Salary hike

To mark the opening of classes, militant teachers’ group Alliance of Concerned Teachers marched to Mendiola to push for salary increase for teachers.

The group is pushing for increase in entry-level teachers’ salaries to P25,000 a month from the current rate of about P18,000. They also asked the government to increase the monthly pay for non-teaching personnel from P9,000 to P15,000.

The Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) debunked DepEd’s pronouncement that the government was ready for the resumption of classes and that classroom shortage had been addressed.

“There are schools in Samar and Leyte that until now have not rebuilt even a single classroom. Still, some of them are used as evacuation centers particularly in Tacloban City and Tanauan, Leyte,” Benjo Basas, TDC national chairman, said. – With Cecille Suerte Felipe, Janvic Mateo, Perseus Echeminada, Celso Amo, Mike Frialde, Ric Sapnu, Artemio Dumlao