It’s back to tent schools

SAME LEARNING PLACE. Tents that served as classrooms for pupils at Botongon Elementary School in Estancia town, Iloilo province, after Super Typhoon Yolanda will still be used when school opens Monday. NESTOR P. BURGOS/INQUIRER VISAYAS

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—“We are ready to rumble.”

Anita Aurelia, a Grade 3 teacher at Pawing Elementary School in Palo town, Leyte province, summed up on the eve of the opening of classes, the gritty determination of the survivors of Super Typhoon Yolanda to get on with their lives.

“We are ready to teach our children,” Aurelia said, “even if we lack classrooms and other facilities.”

As in years past, the authorities at Pawing—and elsewhere across the country—are prepared to grapple with the shortage of classrooms, books and chairs—perennial problems in public schools that were worsened by the devastation caused by the most powerful cyclone to ever make landfall, on Nov. 8, 2013.

Tens of thousands of schoolchildren in Capiz, Aklan, northern Antique, northern Iloilo, northern Negros Occidental, Leyte, Eastern Samar, Samar, Biliran and northern Cebu will be going back to school Monday in makeshift classrooms and tents nearly seven months after Yolanda (international name: Haiyan) wreaked havoc in the region.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro told the Inquirer that the Department of Education (DepEd) was “handang-handa na (very ready)” for Monday’s school opening, declaring that no pupil in the typhoon-devastated region would attend classes under a mango tree.

Luistro said he had seen to it that there would be “temporary learning spaces,” either tents or temporary structures made of wood and corrugated sheets.

He said the cyclone disaster had brought out the “innovativeness” of teachers to ensure the quality of education was maintained while a permanent solution was being worked out.

Nationwide, around 25 million pupils are expected back in schools on Monday, according to Malacañang.

“We appeal to you all to maintain the spirit of bayanihan in the opening of classes. Let’s all help each other to ensure the safety of our students,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said on government radio on Sunday.

He said the Philippine National Police had mobilized its forces to ensure streets and students were secure.

Concern centered on the typhoon calamity zone. Records at the DepEd-Eastern Visayas showed that 11,592 classrooms were either damaged or destroyed in Eastern Samar, Biliran and Samar. Of the number, 7,232 were in Leyte and 970 were in Tacloban City, considered Ground Zero.

Coping with shortages

Several functioning schools will implement classes in shifts to address the space shortage, including in Pawing, one of the biggest public schools in Leyte, which has to accommodate more than 750 pupils with only four classrooms.

The school had 20 classrooms but these were all destroyed by Yolanda. In March, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. built four classrooms at Pawing—each 7 by 9 square meters and made up of prefabricated materials with 40 chairs.

Loreta Gulariza, the principal, said the school had no choice but to hold classes for kindergarten to Grade 3 pupils from 8 a.m. to noon and Grades 4 to 6 pupils from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

“We have to start our classes despite the lack classrooms and materials,” Gulariza said.

The same arrangement is in place at San Fernando Central School in Tacloban, where 29 of its 67 classrooms were destroyed. The principal, Imelda Gayas, said she expected the congestion to ease in three months with the construction of 33 classrooms—eight funded by the United States government and 25 by the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Mercedes Sarmiento, DepEd regional information officer, said 10,154 classrooms in Eastern Visayas were either being repaired or under construction. Of the number, 2,771 were in Leyte and 114 in Tacloban.

She said 1,828 makeshift classrooms and 2,455 tents built either by the DepEd or various humanitarian groups would be used as classrooms. “These will somehow offset the lack of our permanent classrooms destroyed or damaged during the onslaught of Yolanda.”

P5.3B required

At least 2,313 new classrooms have to be built and 17,757 others have to be repaired in the Yolanda-hit regions, according to the DepEd. The bidding will have to conform to the new design for disaster-resilient structures finalized by the DepEd and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in April.

“The construction should start in a month or so because once they (division offices) award the contract, they should already start,” Education Undersecretary Francisco Varela said.

The construction itself should take about 60 to 90 days, he added.

The department estimated that it needed P2.9 billion to construct 2,313 classrooms in the Yolanda-affected areas. State-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) will fund most of the construction through its P2-billion pledge.

The DepEd calculated that the repair of 17,757 classrooms would cost P5.3 billion.

To start the repairs, Varela said some P1 billion from the department’s “savings” had been disbursed from last year. But the bulk of the fund is still held up by pending requests before the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

The DepEd is still waiting for the DBM’s approval to access P1 billion from the national post-Yolanda rehabilitation fund, and the use of some P2.3 billion in its “savings” from last year to fund the repair work.

At least 1,042 classrooms in 682 schools in northern Iloilo, Capiz, Aklan, northern Antique and northern Negros Occidental were destroyed by strong winds brought by the typhoon. Thousands of others were damaged.

The DepEd earlier released P30,000 for each school needing repairs but the bulk of the repair and reconstruction projects have not been implemented.

John Arnold Siena, DepEd assistant director for Western Visayas, said the agency was still in the “procurement stage,” including bidding of materials and repair work of damaged classrooms.

He said the construction of school buildings to replace those destroyed would be undertaken by the DPWH.

Private donors and organizations have donated or funded the repair of classrooms in several worst-hit areas but many of them have not been repaired, according to Siena.

“We are following government procedures in procuring materials and in undertaking repairs,” he told the Inquirer.

The repairs are expected to start in the middle of June or by July, he said.

In northern Cebu, at least P800 million was needed to repair or construct classrooms of 356 schools. The funds would be taken out from the DepEd’s Quick Response Fund. Department records showed that 453 classrooms needed to be replaced and 1,974 classrooms had to be repaired in 15 towns and one city in northern Cebu.

The agency was also coordinating with the DPWH in designing the school buildings that could stand a wind velocity of 250 kilometers per hour and an Intensity 9 earthquake.—With reports from Dona Z. Pazzibugan and Christine O. Avendaño in Manila

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