Want to know how bad the classroom shortage is in your locality? You can help by clicking “Donate.”
The Department of Education (DepEd) on Monday launched an interactive online map that gives full public access to the status of key education resources—or the lack of them—in some 45,000 schools nationwide.
The map—at www.mapcentral.ph/deped—provides a click-on profile of every public elementary and high school campus nationwide, including data on the pupil-classroom ratio, number of teachers, water and power supply, and the various organizations that have assisted a particular school.
Each profile features a “Donate” button which prospective benefactors may click to make a pledge.
“When we see the data, it helps us find the solution. It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution for all schools so we are tapping the private sector to help in this community system,” Education Secretary Armin Luistro said.
“This is part of our campaign for transparency and our way of getting people involved in helping schools,” he added.
Free design
The online map was designed for free by the private firm, Cybersoft, a leading geographic information system service provider in the country.
Luistro has been seeking greater private sector participation in solving perennial shortages in the public education system.
The DepEd, for example, still needs some 67,000 classrooms to ease crowding and reach the ideal classroom-student ratio of one to 45. With the current shortage, up to 100 students are forced to pack one classroom while some schools hold classes in up to three shifts.
Some 102,000 teachers are also needed to support the yearly increase in enrolment, as well as more than 90 million textbooks so that every student can have one, especially for the core subjects.
Luistro, who oversaw his first school as a government official after many years in the private education sector, said he remained hopeful in the thought that the problem could be broken down into “manageable” parts.
He said he had secured partnerships with local governments and private organizations to build more classrooms than the government could afford.
Already the recipient of the biggest chunk of the national budget, the DepEd has allocated P8.9 billion for the construction of 12,467 classrooms this year. It also spends an average of P8,000 for every child enrolled in public school.
In the Cordilleras, a similar website—checkmyschool.org— has been put up to help government agencies, private donors and volunteers know the situation in public schools needing repairs or lacking teachers and instructional materials.
A tie-up between the DepEd and Ateneo de Manila University, the site was launched in Baguio City and Benguet in February, and was also piloted in Tacloban and Pagadian Cities, and Leyte.
Social accountability
Angelita Gregorio-Medel, director of the Affiliated Network for Social Accountability in East Asia and the Pacific (Ansa-EAP), said the project sought to promote transparency and social accountability between the government and the public on matters relating to education.
Medel said the project also encouraged student participation in reporting problems in their schools.
“Instead of spending their time playing games in the computer, they can make their time valuable by using this website in reporting about what is happening in their schools. They can also teach their parents how to use the computer so they would be involved in [uploading information],” she said.
The website contains data on a school’s budget, enrolment statistics, and inventory of teaching personnel, furniture, textbooks, classrooms and toilets.
It also shares information on a school’s performance or proficiency ratings, and allows users to send feedback and report the situation in their schools with the help of photos and videos.
Students in the pilot areas, for example, have been mobilized to take part in textbook counting and school monitoring activities, called “Bantay Eskwela” and “Bayanihan Eskwela,” so they could gather and upload information in the website, Medel reported.
Aside from tapping students and youth organizations in contributing information to the website, Ansa-EAP has asked the Boy Scouts of the Philippines (BSP) to volunteer in monitoring the situation in public schools, said Jecel Censoro, Ansa-EAP network associate.
BSP chapters in schools around the country, she said, would be asked to help in the inventory of textbooks and chairs.
Censoro said the project would also cover Cebu, Iloilo, Cotabato, Davao, Laguna, Pampanga, Palawan and Quezon starting this month and targets at least 8,000 of the more than 44,000 public schools in the country.