TLS solution to classroom lack

NOT YET REPAIRED Visitors of Albay Central Elementary School in Legazpi City pass by one of the classrooms damaged by Typhoon “Glenda” last year. MICHAEL B. JAUCIAN/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON

LEGAZPI CITY—When classes open next month, hundreds of elementary students of Albay Central School here will be headed to rooms partitioned by plywood panels with galvanized roofs.

The “temporary learning spaces (TLS)” are an alternative to classrooms damaged by Typhoon “Glenda” (international name: Rammasun) in Bicol in July last year but have yet to be repaired by the Department of Education (DepEd), said the school principal, Jeannie N. Buan.

Many more schools in the region have typhoon-damaged classrooms, according to Jose B. Bonto, DepEd administrative officer in Bicol. He estimated 1,033 classrooms that still need repair in elementary and high schools in the six provinces.

Bonto said that in Camarines Norte, 79 classrooms are still damaged; Camarines Sur, 305; Albay, 282; Sorsogon, 166; Masbate, 154; and Catanduanes, 47.

This school year, the DepEd is expecting an influx of enrollees to Albay Central School, the biggest public elementary school in Legazpi, because of student transferees. “The school is expecting 3,500 to 4,000 students this school year,” Buan said.

Buan said the school administration was still figuring out how to accommodate all the students.

Suggestions have cropped up, including the use of the covered court, the prewar Gabaldon building, and the TLS or makeshift classrooms that were built when hundreds of students were relocated to safe schools from danger zones when Mayon Volcano became restive last year.

Buan said some of the students would use the temporary rooms for one to two months, or until those damaged are repaired.

The city government also promised to built more classrooms in public schools, she said.