DESPITE the bad roads leading to the school and unsafe structures, more than 100 students are enrolled at the Busay Elementary School in the hills of Cebu City.
They have no choice but to use the area while authorities look for a relocation site, said the principal Phamela Oliva.
Oliva pointed to cracks in the walls caused by the shifting ground foundation. The comfort rooms had cracks big enough for a pen to pass through.
The school buildings were built in 2003 as a makeshift study area for Busay students due to the unstable ground.
“The foundation is not that strong so if the ground moves, the buidings also move,” Oliva said in Cebuano.
Last year, Oliva said they held classes by two shifts a day for Grades 1, 2, and 5 in small tents where pupils crowded.
“Teachers had a hard time because other grade levels were congested in the tent which is just divided by a blackboard,” Oliva said.
“When it rains, the students get wet because the water enters the sides of the tent.”
In school year 2011 – 2012, more than 600 students enrolled there.
But after an earthquake in 2012, the number went down to almost 530 as students transferred to the neighboring schools in barangay Malubog and Lahug.
More than 100 grade one students already enrolled last Thursday. Parents held a fun run to raise money to fix the uneven floors of the classrooms at the start of the Brigada Eskwela cleanup last Monday./Correspondent Christine L. Pantaleon