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By Maila Ager, Reporter
FACED with a huge shortage of teachers,
textbooks and classrooms, the Department of Education (DepEd)
has yet to find a long-term solution that would
eliminate these chronic problems.
Education officials interviewed by The Manila
Times admitted that the only available option the department has
right now is to adopt “temporary” and “alternative”
solutions.
Like in the previous years, DepEd continues to
complain that the budget allocated to it by Congress falls far short
of its requirements for teachers, textbooks and classrooms.
Ninety percent of this year’s allocation of
P104 billion, for instance, will go to the salaries of
teachers and nonteaching personnel, six percent to
maintenance and operating expenses, leaving only three percent for
much-needed capital outlays.
To address the shortage of teachers,
Education Undersecretary Fe Hidalgo said the department is
toying with the idea of redeploying its teachers
by moving those assigned to noncongested areas to
schools which are experiencing a shortage of mentors.
This plan to reassign instructors, however,
faces legal impediments because the Magna Carta law mandates that
public school teachers should be assigned to areas where
they live.
There are about 470,000 teachers nationwide, but
DepEd estimates that 44,000 more are needed to meet the needs of
more than 17 million students in public schools all over the
country.
Initial reports from the Basic Education
Information System (BEIS) showed that school divisions
in the Visayas will have to operate with an average ratio of
one instructor for every 50 students in the secondary level.
The disparity is apparent compared with the
Ilocos region where one instructor has to handle 29 students in the
elementary level.
Miguel Luz, DepEd undersecretary for
finance, said the department can no longer afford to
hire new teachers owing to budget constraints–putting the
implementation of this long-term solution out of the question for
now.
Luz said the department will sit down
with the Department of Budget and Management to press
for a budget allocation next year that will allow for
the hiring of new instructors.
“The chance [of getting Congress’ approval]
is 50-50. But we are going to make our case and
we will sit down with the budget department to make sure
that it gets in the budget request,” he said.
On the lack of textbooks, Luz admitted
that a long-term solution will continue to evade DepEd as long as
Congress does not allocate sufficient funding for the
program.
“We are thinking that if our projections are
correct, we should have a universal ratio of 1:1 [book per
student] by June 2004,” he said, adding that this
can be done by redistributing old textbooks
in elementary level.
DepEd officials claimed the textbook
condition has practically improved this year with an
average of 1:2 (of students to books) except on
Grade 3 level where one English book will be shared by
seven pupils.
Hidalgo also said public schools will
probably use their old books should the delivery of new
books is delayed this school year. The deliveries
of textbooks are expected to begin this month until September.
The shortage of classrooms, on the other hand,
was temporarily addressed during the maintenance week program of the
department.
“In Iloilo for example, some of the
parents actually repaired some of the broken chairs and desks so the
students can use them,” she said.
Luz likewise cited the case of
Cavite where 25,000 chairs were bought using the
local school board funds, even as he admitted that these were
not enough to fill up the DepEd’s target of one
million new chairs each year, he stressed.
Education officials acknowledged
the big role played by community and local government
units as well as nongovernment organizations in providing
temporary solutions to improve the physical conditions of
old schoolbuildings.
In fact, he said the Special Education
Fund of LGUs are being utilized by some schools
which are in dire need of assistance.
Despite these problems besetting the
education system , officials have high
hopes that public schools can still provide good
quality education to a growing population.
Hidalgo said the only stumbling
block in the delivery of good quality
education is the large class sizes in congested areas.
She said President Arroyo has
already encouraged the DepEd leadership to look into
alternative ways of addressing the problem like the holding
of double session and limiting the class sizes.
“If the class sizes are limited, how many more
teachers do we need? If we have double sessions, how many more
classrooms do we need? That’s what we are doing at the
moment so we can see whether the problems can be address
that way,” Hidalgo pointed out.
The National Union of Students of the
Philippines (NUSP), however, expressed dissatisfactions over
the plan of actions of the education department.
Raymond Palatino, NUSP leader, said DepEd
should exert all its effort to lobby for a bigger
budget next year to finally put an end
to the problems, which have long hounding public schools
in the country.
“The short-term solutions are not
going to solve the problems. Even if you address
it now, same problems will add up next year,” Palatino
said.
He also proposed that
pork barrel of congressmen as well as the government’s
budget for foreign-debt servicing be diverted to the
hiring of new teachers and other badly needed capital
expenditures.
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