Cebu, Region 7 face classroom shortage

CEBU and the rest of Region 7 face a shortage of 2,049 classrooms in this month’s school opening, the Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7) said.

In yesterday’s Kapihan forum, DepEd-7 Director Dr. Carmelita Dolangon said they expect 1.4 million enrollees in the region this school year.

She said whatever additional classrooms that were built were also used for kindergarten classes.

In Cebu, the provincial DepEd office said they need an additional 1,156 classrooms to accommodate students in the elementary and high school levels.

Dolangon said their initial estimates showed there will be 81,355 incoming kindergarten students.

Their office also recorded 961,517 elementary and 411,994 incoming high school students.

Dolangon said they ordered public schools to remind their teachers to prepare for double shifting of classes to accommodate the students.

DepEd instructed their supervisors to ask their local governments to allow the use of their barangay day care centers.

DepEd Cebu provincial Supt. Dr. Arden Monisit said the province builds 200 classrooms annually for the students.

He said they are coordinating with institutions like the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) to build more classrooms. So far, Monisit said the province has 548 classrooms for elementary and 608 for high school students.

DepEd started the distribution of school textbooks during the weeklong Brigada Skwela program last week.

Dolangon said they ordered teachers to conduct classes on the first day of school instead of cleaning the classrooms or distributing books. Reporter Candeze R. Mongaya