No delay in Marawi school opening, DepEd assures

MARAWI RISING The government says efforts to bring back normalcy to Marawi are ongoing as the Lanao del Sur provincial capital marks the first year when the Maute terror group laid siege to the city. JEOFFREY MAITEM

Classes in war-torn Marawi City will begin on the same day as the rest of public schools nationwide on June 4, the Department of Education (DepEd) said on Monday.

Education Secretary Leonor Briones said she would visit Marawi’s ground zero for the first time on Tuesday to assess the conditions of schools in the city devastated by war between government forces and the Islamic State-inspired Maute group last year.

“We are doing all we can to speed up the construction and repair of the school buildings in Marawi,” she said in a press briefing at the DepEd central office in Pasig City.

Brigada Eskwela

On Wednesday, Briones, along with Assistant Education Secretary Alfhadar Pajiji of DepEd Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is expected to lead the closing of “Brigada Eskwela sa Marawi” and the launch of “Oplan Balik Eskwela in Marawi” at Amai Pakpak Central Elementary School in Marawi.

Launched in December 2017, Brigada Eskwela sa Marawi was the DepEd’s flagship program for the recovery and rehabilitation of the Islamic city after the five-month siege.

Last year, at the height of the siege that began on May 23, classes in Marawi and in eight school districts nearest to the conflict area were pushed back by two weeks to ensure the safety of students, teachers and DepEd employees.

Clusters

Data from the DepEd showed that more than 31,000 students were displaced from the city and were forced to continue their studies in other schools across the country.

Despite the ongoing rehabilitation, however, Briones noted that not all schools in Marawi could be opened this school year.

“What DepEd did was to cluster the schools, after we observed that they were adjacent to one another,” she said.

Briones said that of the 69 schools in the city, more than 20 would not be able to accommodate students because of their poor and unsafe conditions.

More than 40 schools would need to undergo repairs, she said.