Bulacan stops school field trips

CITY OF MALOLOS—The Bulacan provincial board has directed school officials in the province to suspend the holding of field trips in all school levels until the board passes an ordinance regulating these activities.

The board on Tuesday issued the resolution in light of a Feb. 8 accident in Tanay, Rizal, where a tourist bus rolled down a slope and hit Rio Bianca Ramirez, 14, and Pamela Joyce Ann Enriquez, 15, both high school students of the Holy Spirit Academy of Malolos.

Ramirez died instantly while Enriquez died on Feb. 17 while undergoing treatment at  Capitol Medical Center in Quezon City.

Board Member Michael Fermin, chair of the committee on education, tourism, culture, arts and cooperatives, said the moratorium on school field trips covers both public and private institutions that cater to daycare, kindergarten, elementary, high school and college students.

The Holy Spirit Academy officials were asked to brief the committee about the accident at a public inquiry on Monday.

But board members said they were disappointed when the academy would not provide answers as to why they did not submit the field trip itinerary to the Department of Education (DepEd) as prescribed by the agency’s guidelines.

The inquiry also discovered that the school collected field trip contributions during enrollment, which meant that students were required to join the activity, Fermin said.

He said the school’s officials were summoned by the DepEd about the apparent anomaly. Carmela Reyes-Estrope, Inquirer Central Luzon