MANILA, Philippines — All 102 students in the lone public school at Pag-asa (Thitu) Island currently take turns using its three classrooms, according to the Department of Education.
Education Secretary Sonny Angara was briefed on the state of Pag-asa Integrated School, the sole DepEd school in the remote 37-hectare island, during his visit there on Monday, October 21.
The three classrooms are currently shared among 102 students from Kindergarten to Grade 12, who are taught by a roster of 14 teachers. "Given the situation, they implement multiple grade levels scheme in the classrooms," DepEd told Philstar.com in a message.
"There is, however, an ongoing two-story building composed of six classrooms which is expected to solve their classroom gap," DepEd said, with the target date for the inauguration of the new facilities by the first quarter of next year.
Pag-asa Island previously only had one elementary school until 2021, when DepEd approved the creation of the Pag-asa Integrated Elementary and High School.
This allowed students to take up their secondary education on the island without traveling to Puerto Princesa City in Palawan, which takes more than a day to reach.
Laptop distribution
Angara's visit to Pag-asa Integrated School — one of the farthest public schools from Metro Manila, sitting over 1,100 kilometers away — is the first by a sitting DepEd secretary in recent times, according to DepEd.
During the visit, the DepEd secretary distributed 15 laptops to the teachers of Pag-asa Integrated School.
The department also distributed 43 footballs and 109 school bags filled with essential supplies for the students.
"With this technology, we hope to lighten the workload of our teachers and unlock the potential of our learners," Angara said.
To assess the education needs of Pag-asa Island residents, Angara and key DepEd officials also held consultations with teachers, parents, and local leaders. These talks touched on potential solutions to improve the island’s living conditions, including housing initiatives and transportation services for residents.
Infrastructure gaps
Pag-asa Island, the largest of the nine features occupied by the Philippines in the Spratly Islands, falls under the jurisdiction of the Kalayaan municipality in Palawan.
The increasing demand for more classrooms in the Philippines' only inhabited feature in the Spratlys Islands is just one of many infrastructure gaps facing the island's approximately 400 residents.
During a well-publicized visit by senators to the island in May this year, then-Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri vowed to ask local telecommunications companies to boost their networks' signal in the area to allow its residents, including students, more widespread access to the internet.
The senators flew to the island for the groundbreaking ceremony of a Philippine Navy barracks and a rural health unit.
The Philippine government has constructed various facilities on Pag-asa Island in recent years to assert its sovereignty in the West Philippine Sea. This is taking place amid China's continued island-building activities in the Spratlys Islands, which form part of its broader campaign to assert its claims over nearly the entire South China Sea, which a 2016 ruling has nullified.
In early October, the Philippine Navy saw the number of Chinese vessels swarming Pag-asa Island double from 25 to 50, most of which were maritime militia vessels.