Usual woes, protests mar start of classes

FLAG CEREMONY Hundreds of students of Batasan Hills High School in Quezon City show up for the flag ceremony at the opening of the school year. Some 25 million students were expected to attend classes throughout the country. MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Food vendor Zenaida Francisco’s wish is quite simple: to see her 17-year-old daughter Rocille back in school.

For reasons still unclear to the mother, the teenager dropped out in December last year, just three months away from graduation at Talubatib National High School in Camarines Norte.

“I wanted her to be with me here in Parañaque instead of wasting time with her barkada (gang) in Camarines Norte. But we can’t enroll her here because her school is demanding payment of P800 in unpaid fees we don’t know about,” Francisco on Monday told the Inquirer.

“Since May 27, I have been pleading with [Parañaque National High School] to accept her, but we can’t enroll her because we do not have her records from her old school,” said Francisco, whose six other children all go to state-funded schools.

Enrolment problems ranging from late enrollees to transferees hounded the opening of classes on Monday, when some 25.7 million students from kindergarten through high school returned to public and private high schools nationwide.

It was the first class opening for the Aquino administration, whose Department of Education (DepEd) is grappling with inherited shortages in critical resources, including teachers, classrooms, textbooks, seats and toilets.

As it happened, a group of 50 teachers, still in uniform, trooped to the DepEd central office in Pasig City to protest the introduction of K+12, a costly universal kindergarten program, amid yet unresolved problems including the low wages of educators.

Complaints galore

At the Oplan Balik Eskwela command center at the DepEd central office, complaints have been streaming nonstop since last week, many involving the inability to transfer schools—from public to public or from private to public—because of unpaid dues.

“Last year, there were a few of the same cases. But now, it seems that there are more,” said Evangeline Calinisan, an official at the Bureau of Secondary Education who chairs the walk-in desk at the action center.

“There are cases of students transferring from private to public schools but can’t enroll because their old school won’t release their records. There are cases where parents owe their children’s schools from P60,000 to P100,000,” Calinisan said.

In such cases, Calinisan’s team arranged for a school to take students despite lacking requirements.

For Rocille Francisco, the DepEd has asked Parañaque National High School to allow enrollment pending her submission of school documents.

Explaining the yearly phenomenon of students shifting from expensive private education to free public schooling, Calinisan said: “These are cases of money matters because the parents, such as OFWs (overseas Filipino workers), lost their jobs. Or the parents fell sick or failed in their businesses.”

Gov’t obligation

The DepEd is still collating data on transferees, particularly students moving from private to public schools. But according to Education Secretary Armin Luistro, it is the government’s obligation to resolve the problem.

Although limited in resources, the government is aspiring to provide universal access to basic education as envisioned in the 2015 Millennium Development Goals, Luistro told reporters on Monday.

“It is our obligation. [But] before we make a solution, we have to hold consultations and see the numbers,” he said.

Luistro visited elementary schools in Manila and San Juan on Monday morning and was happy to see classes being conducted on the first day of school.

Faced with reports of late enrollees, however, he said the education department would prioritize those who had made the effort to register on time.

“If they were able to wait six months before enrolling, maybe they can wait one or two weeks more until we have made a decision,” Luistro said in a press conference at San Juan Elementary School.

Time shortage

Education authorities had called on parents and students to register in January so that school officials could prepare for the opening of classes with an accurate enrollment estimate.

“If there are shortages in teachers, classrooms, seats, textbooks and sanitation facilities, the biggest shortage is time. A child’s time in school should not be wasted,” Luistro said.

He said he had been preparing for the new school year as soon as he was appointed education secretary in July 2010.

“I will look obsessive-compulsive here, but I said that for all schools, 180 days in class should be sacred. There should be no distraction. Day One should be a school day. A student’s time in school is the most important resource,” he said.

Late enrollees will be wait-listed for the meantime until the DepEd decides whether schools, already congested especially in urban areas, can still accommodate more students.

“I had appealed before that we should not wait for the last minute and expect that DepEd has a solution for everything. We need time to plan properly, Luistro said.

Not carabaos

Unmindful of the stifling midday heat, members of the Manila Kindergarten Teachers Association (Makita) and the Manila chapter of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) gathered outside the DepEd central office to decry the government’s K+12 (kindergarten plus 12 years) program.

“We are teachers, not carabaos,” said Makita president Araceli de Ocampo.

The two groups distributed copies of a position paper that read in part: “We are not against the implementation of kindergarten. [But the program] will not produce quality kindergarten education [if it involves] two sessions of classes, or six hours of straight teaching, bigger class sizes, lack of well-trained and underpaid kindergarten teachers, lack of classrooms, facilities and instructions.”

The DepEd started the school year with the expanded kindergarten program, accepting some 1.9 million students nationwide to kick off K+12.

But teachers’ groups are complaining that some 38,000 teachers are working as contractual employees to staff the kindergarten classrooms, with many receiving only P3,000 for one shift.

“A babysitter receives P3,000 a month for taking care of one child. Here, teachers are looking after at least 45 students,” said ACT vice president Benjie Valbuena.

“Maybe President Aquino and Secretary Luistro should go back to kindergarten to understand the situation,” he added.

Why the rush?

Valbuena said the government seemed to be rushing the implementation of K+12 despite the lack of resources.

A flagship program of the Aquino administration, K+12 seeks to add two years of senior high school to the current 10-year basic education cycle to produce highly employable high school graduates.

But Valbuena said: “This will just add to the shortages. You’ll make education worse. This should not be rushed but planned properly.”