FIRST DAY HIGH. A little boy waits for instructions to enter his classroom on his first day in school at President Corazon C. Aquino Elementary School on Batasan Road in Quezon City. ALEXIS CORPUZ
MANILA, Philippines–As classes opened on Monday, already congested public schools in Metro Manila attempted to cope with overflowing enrollees by further dividing classrooms, using corridors, libraries, laboratories and even the principal’s offices as classrooms.
About 626, or 82 percent, of the 764 public schools in the metropolis have resorted to creating two shifts—or morning (6 a.m. to 12 p.m.) and afternoon (12 to 6 p.m.) classes—to accommodate more than their optimum capacity.
Of these, the Department of Education (DepEd) has identified 20 “highly congested schools,” including six in Quezon City, four in Caloocan, three in Malabon, two each in Las Piñas, Taguig and Parañaque and one in Marikina.
The rest are in the standard single shift, with one school implementing three-class shifts.
“Most of the problems have to do with the lack of classrooms, school chairs,” said Luz Almeda, DepEd director for the National Capital Region.
She said that where possible, schools where the class size had ballooned to between 75 and 80 had divided classrooms into two to halve the class size, packing pupils in a smaller space.
The ideal class size is 45 for high schools and 35 in elementary schools.
“We used the science labs, libraries, lanais (corridors) and the principal’s office as classrooms. The problem is we don’t have buildable space anymore,” Almeda said, adding that they will no longer build one-story classroom buildings but would go for three- up to five-story buildings.
After the DepEd central office shelved a planned three-day school week, schools in Caloocan City were left with class sizes of above 70 up to 78, according to Almeda.
“They are already on two shifts but the class size is really large,” Almeda said.
In Quezon City, Almeda said, schools in the Batasan area—including Batasan National High School, President Corazon C. Aquino Elementary School and Payatas A, Payatas B and Payatas C Elementary School—had to divide their classrooms to accommodate two classes in a space meant for just one class.
‘Busing system’
In Valenzuela City, the “busing system” started on Monday as the latest scheme to be tried out to ease overcrowding in certain schools.
At least 140 late enrollees of Malinta Elementary School-Pagalagad Annex would be transported daily to Caruhatan West Elementary School using six vans donated by the city government to the DepEd division office.
The vans would pick up the pupils daily from Malinta at 10:45 a.m. and bring them to Caruhatan West supposedly by 11:45 a.m., and then bring them back to Malinta after their classes.
Almeda said they hoped to make a similar arrangement in Caloocan within the year and in Quezon City next school year to transfer late enrollees from congested schools to other not yet crowded schools within the city.
Coping in Pasig City
Lack of classrooms and K to 12 modules, and a shortage of teachers are just some of the problems encountered in some public schools in Pasig City.
At Manggahan Elementary School, 2,842 students showed up on Monday. “We are expecting more students because the enrollment is still ongoing,” said Maria Tesana Fabros, assistant to the principal.
“Sometimes, there are also transferees,” she said, adding that last year’s enrollment figure reached around 3,300.
The big number of students has prompted school officials to implement varying classroom-to-student ratios per class, with the “maximum” number of students in one classroom reaching 48, she said. The DepEd has said that the ideal classroom to student ratio is 1:45.
“We might have to increase the (classroom-to-student) ratio possibly to 1:50 if more students show up in the coming days,” Fabros added.
As in years before, the school is implementing a shifting scheme to accommodate all classes in the school’s 61 classrooms.
She said the students in five kindergarten sections, and all Grade 2 and Grade 5 students would come to class in the afternoon so they can use the same classrooms used by other kindergarten sections and all Grade 1, Grade 3, Grade 4 and Grade 6 students in the morning.
Fabros said some teachers may have to “improvise” because the K to 12 modules for Grade 3 had yet to arrive. “It’s up to the teachers,” she said.
Freeze on hiring teachers
In nearby Napico Elementary School, a teacher who refused to be identified for fear of reprisal admitted that the same K to 12 modules had yet to reach them. “We already have the modules for Grades 1 and 2, but not for Grade 3. We haven’t been told when these (Grade 3 modules) would arrive,” she said.
Whereas before, the classroom-to-student ratio in the school reached a “maximum” of 1:50, she said, this year so far, the ratios reached a “maximum” of 1:56, with the “minimum” being 1:48.
She attributed the increased number of students per classroom to the shortage of teachers.
Asked why the teachers had “gone,” she said they were let go in light of a DepEd memorandum that directed regional directors, school division superintendents and school heads of public elementary and secondary schools to “discontinue the hiring of new LGU-funded and kindergarten volunteer teachers” starting this school year.
Mothers also cram schools
Separation anxiety apparently hit mothers harder than the pupils on their first day of school.
At Commonwealth Elementary School, principal Rodolfo Modelo said the facility, with one of the biggest pupil populations, had no problem on opening day except for “makulit” (annoyingly persistent) mothers who insisted on lingering in the already crowded school compound.
Modelo told the Inquirer that it was understandable for mothers of kindergarten to Grade 2 pupils as well as children enrolled under special education to stay longer inside the compound until their kids are settled but older pupils had to be taught to be independent, at least at the school.
The principal estimates the school population at 9,600 could increase by 4 or 5 percent by Monday when they will open up the enrollment for late applicants. The school, he said, currently has 247 kids under the special education program.
Modelo added that 16 classrooms are under construction to improve the room-to-student ratio at the school, particularly for the older pupils, which stands at 1:55 currently.
Originally posted: 6:14 pm | Monday, June 2nd, 2014
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