Lack of rooms, books to greet Iloilo students

ILOILO CITY — Lack of classrooms and textbooks awaits an estimated more than 300,000 Iloilo students when classes start tomorrow.

Unfazed by these shortages, the most serious in Western Visayas, the Department of Education’s division of Iloilo schools said it is ready for the opening of classes.

"We are all systems go as a matter of fact; we are now ready," division superintendent Raymundo Lapating said.

The division oversees 155 national high schools and 967 public elementary schools across the province.

Although there is no exact figure yet on the actual number of enrollees, the division expects that it will be higher than last year’s 352,853.

Lapating admitted that there are, indeed, shortages of classrooms and textbooks, but he downplayed them.

"There are some isolated problems, but they are manageable... There may be shortages, but they are also manageable," he said.

Western Visayas lacks 1,148 classrooms, accounting for 5.69 percent of the country’s total shortage, and 1,674,917 textbooks, according to the education department.

Part of the breakdown of classroom shortage: Iloilo, 150 for elementary schools, and 315 for high schools; Negros Occidental, 21 and 129; Capiz, 22 and 108; Aklan, 23 and 87; and Antique, 20 and 42.

Of the 14 school divisions in the region, Iloilo has the highest classroom shortage. At present, the classroom-pupil ratio in Iloilo’s elementary schools is 1:30, and in high schools, 1:55.