“Twenty six years after our Constitution mandated free high
school education, the government has not been able to make high school
accessible to a substantial number of Filipino children.” – ACT Teachers’ Party
Rep. Antonio Tini
MANILA – Lack of books, chairs, water and toilet facilities
once again greeted public school students of school year 2013-2014. While the
Department of Education said that the shortages are being addressed for this
year, recent reports however belied this.
DepEd Assistant Secretary for Planning Jesus Mateo said
shortages in textbooks and classroom seats have been addressed since last year
with an expected 1:1 student-textbook and student-seat ratio this year.
But several reports showed schools where classrooms are
jam-packed with students; some schools have make-shift classrooms and a class
without chairs where students sat on the floor. ACT Teachers’ Party Rep.
Antonio Tinio visited schools in Quezon City and found the same old problems.
During Tinio’s early morning visit in some Quezon City
public schools as class started last June 3, Monday, they observed that the
standard classroom was divided into two, school corridors were converted into
makeshift classrooms, some classrooms have no blackboards and chairs, other
facilities such as covered courts are converted into classrooms, chairs are
still lacking and some students were relegated to the home study program.
At the F.G. Calderon High School in Tondo, Manila, 60 to 80
students are packed in one classroom.
Enrollees in the said school reach up to 3,000 every school
year said Louie Zabala, teacher at F.G. Calderon High School and chairman of
ACT-Manila. Public schools in Negros Occidental have enough teachers but they
lack 784 classrooms. According to a report, provincial school superintendent
Juliet Jeruta said they are short by 483 classrooms for kindergarten, 129 for
elementary and 172 for high school.
The DepEd also said they continue to hire teachers to meet
the shortages. The DepEd, according to San Mateo has hired 61,510 teachers.
However, the DepEd also said 70,000 more teachers are needed to fully address
the shortages.
According to France Castro, second nominee of ACT Teachers’
Party, there are only a few applicants for teaching positions in public
schools. “Kindergarten teachers are required to specialize in Early Childhood
Education, but not all teachers have that specialization,” Castro told Bulatlat.com.
Tinio also noted that the DepEd continues to rely on 35,449
volunteer Kindergarten teachers, 4,828 mobile teachers and Alternative Learning
System (ALS) coordinators, and 49,530 teachers funded by local governments,
majority of whom are paid less than their DepEd-funded counterparts and have no
benefits or job security.
Volunteer teachers are receiving an honorarium of only
P3,000 to P8,000 ($71.10 to 189.59) a month that sometimes is even delayed.
“The government cannot claim that the shortage in teachers
has been addressed when it relies on 89,807 contractual and grossly exploited
teachers, who are paid far below the minimum wage with no benefits and no job
security.”
Some public schools in the Philippines until now are facing this problem with regards to the shortages of facilities and materials to be used by the learners. We cannot deny the fact that there are still schools that cannot ensure the quality of education they give to the learners because they lack in several aspects. One of these is the number of books given in every class. The ratio 1:1 is not actually realized since it’s very obvious that they lack books. Because of this, the learners have to share with 1 book which greatly affects the process of learning. Some schools also lack classrooms and seats that is why learners will be forced to stay in covered courts or corridors which are not actually conducive to learning. Lack of skilled teachers is also one of the problem faced by Philippine education especially in public schools. If there are teachers available, some of them don’t have specialization. There are also teachers that are paid less especially those volunteered teachers. Because of that, there are teachers who are now applying in other fields for greener pasteur.
TumugonBurahin