Teachers, students to undergo stress debriefing

FOUR days after typhoon “Yolanda” struck Daanbantayan, schools in northern Cebu towns remain roofless and soaked classrooms were filled with fallen tree trunks, leaves and branches.

While the Department of Education (DepEd) continues to assess the situation, students and teachers will undergo stress debriefing to help them recover from the trauma of experiencing the loss of loved ones and their homes due to “Yolanda”, Education Secretary Armin Luistro said.

Luistro arrived in Cebu yesterday to inspect the schools in northern Cebu towns damaged by the supertyphoon.

He designated the Department of Education regional office as a satellite office to monitor the seven school divisions in Tacloban, Eastern Samar, Catbalogan, Biliran, Baybay, Borongan and other parts of eastern Leyte.

Most schools in Tabogon, San Remegio, Medellin, and Daanbantayan were devastated by the supertyphoon.

The DepEd regional office said 200 classrooms were damaged by “Yolanda” in northern Cebu.

DepEd Regional Director Carmelita Dulangon said their engineers are still continuing their assessment on the damage.

Jocelyn Arvis, a Grade 2 teacher of Malingin Elementary School, said she was devastated seeing the damaged classrooms last week.

She and other teachers worked all week to prepare for a scheduled evaluation of their school by education officials.

The inspection was important to raise their school’s ranking and typhoon “Yolanda” rendered their preparations moot.

“We worked so hard because we had an evaluation this week…the typhoon ruined it all,” a teary-eyed Arvis said.

She also said their pupils lost all their school supplies due to the flood.

But 10-year-old pupil Earl Anthony Rasipi was undaunted, saying he will still attend classes once their principal declares their school safe.

“Mo-eskwela ko, bisan wala nakoy mga papel, notebook ug books. Aron makapasar..para sa akong pamilya (I will go to school even if I had no papers, notebooks or books so I can pass for my family),” Rasipi told Cebu Daily News. Correspondent Fe Marie D. Dumaboc