Ban on yearbooks proposed

Thursday, January 19, 2012

KIDAPAWAN CITY – A top city official proposed the banning of yearbooks in all school levels in this city to lessen financial burden on the part of parents and guardians.

Vice Mayor Joseph Evangelista said payments for yearbooks are additional burden that give anxieties to parents when graduation comes.

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"Most of the parents, guardians, and even the students are worried as to how they would produce the money for the yearbook. And we're not talking here of hundreds of pesos but thousands, which is quite big for poor and middle class families," Evangelista said.

Instead of hardbound yearbook, the vice mayor proposed that an electronic copy of all the photographs of the graduates, faculty, and other school activities would be given for fee to students as souvenir.

The compiled photographs and activities can be downloaded from the main computer files to any storage data, according to the proposed ordinance.

The e-copy, he explained, is a lot cheaper as compared to book-bound yearbook. 

Also, copies of the photos from the storage data can be printed anytime, anywhere.

"They can just select the photos they like, print them, and keep them forever," he said.

Hermie Duga-Duga, one of the parents in one of the public schools here, said he agreed to the proposal, saying banning the printing of yearbooks on all levels can minimize corruption.

"We hear parents and students complain about the delay in the printing of the yearbooks. There were cases where the money intended for the yearbook was used by the teachers who were in-charge in the collection," Duga-Duga said.

None among the teachers who were believed involved in the corruption was prosecuted, he added.

Once approved and passed into law, a school that would violate such ordinance is liable to pay P10,000 as penalty.

The proposal to ban the yearbooks is one of the matters to be discussed during a public hearing and consultation on Friday.