Classes opened yesterday amid the usual complaints of classroom shortage and inadequate facilities and the demand for salary hike by public school teachers.
The Department of Education said the opening of classes was “generally smooth and orderly.”
“It’s very pleasant and very exciting. It was more exciting in Marawi City because this is a big event,” Education Secretary Leonor Briones told reporters in a press briefing at Quezon High School in Quezon City.
“We have simultaneously opened classes in Marawi City so that the students can catch up even if it’s Ramadan, even if some classrooms need repair. The students were very excited,” she added.
A teachers’ group took the opening of schools as an opportunity to air its demand for a wage increase.
“We are ready for the resumption of classes and we are as excited as our students who anticipate that we will provide their learning needs today and the rest of the school year. However, we are still asking the DepEd and the entire government to provide the needs of our teachers as well,” Benjo Basas, a Caloocan City teacher and national chairperson of the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC), said.
“We believe that we deserve a better compensation than what we are receiving. Also, we have laws that guarantee the benefits and incentives for teachers to give life to the provision of the constitution which mandates the state to ensure that teaching will attract the best available talent through adequate remuneration and other incentives that will make our teachers satisfied and fulfilled,” Basas added.
The TDC recently launched its signature campaign for P10,000 across-the-Board salary increase. The group intends to gather 500,000 signatures from public school teachers and DepEd employees nationwide and present them to President Rodrigo Duterte before congress reopens next month.
The teachers also took swipe at the DepEd for its failure to implement the provisions of the Magna Carta for Public School Teachers that was passed in 1966. “The DepEd is tasked to implement the law and ask congress for its budgetary requirements. Yet for some 52 years, the agency has failed to fully implement the provisions of the law,” Basas said.
Addressing complaints of inadequate classrooms, Briones said there is always a shortage in classrooms because the number of students increases every school year.
“The shortage is not completely DepEd’s fault. We have two huge government agencies that are in charge of this programme,” he DepEd chief said, referring to her agency and the Department of Public Works and Highways.
“We can no longer build more classrooms in urban areas like Metro Manila due to lack of buildable space. We go as high as four-storeys in crowded schools,” Briones added.
She said DepEd will build an additional 85,000 classrooms this year. The ideal student to classroom ratio for kindergarten is 1:35, and 1:45 for elementary and high school.
DepEd National Capital Region Regional Director Wilfredo Cabral said 80% of schools in Metro Manila are implementing the double shift.
The most congested schools in Metro Manila are the Batasan National High School in Quezon City, Rizal High School in Pasig City, and Paranaque National High School.