Monday, June 04, 2007 Security raised as school opens Monday By Danilo V. Adorador III
DESPITE classroom shortages and other school woes, the Department of Education in Northern Mindanao said the region's public schools are ready for the opening of classes for public schools Monday.
Nona Estilo, DepEd regional assistant director, said the region's 2,238 public elementary and high schools are all prepared to accommodate the expected 800,000 students who will attend their first day of class Monday.
The police said they will be on the look-out for criminals--especially snatchers and robbers--who commonly station themselves outside schools to prey on unsuspecting students.
"We will deploy our men for deterrent purposes. Past incidents have shown that criminals commonly strike during the first rush of classes--snatching properties from students or robbing them and their parents with money that are supposed to be paid for school fees," said Cagayan de Oro Police Director Aurelio Trampe.
Meanwhile, weeks of clean-up drive by parents and community members on all public schools capped the two-month summer, which Estilo said had improved the physical qualities of classrooms for them to be conducive for learning.
Late enrollees may still be accepted, and Estilo reminded teachers that school fees remain voluntary upon enrollment.
At the start of classes, however, some public school students will find their classrooms congested, lacking armchairs, or worst, teachers.
Seeking to mitigate classroom shortages, the DepEd has started implementing the two-shifts-per-classroom strategy.
Critics, however, said this approach shortens learning time and may adversely affect the student's learning skills.
Based on the number of the expected 812,224 enrollees, public elementary schools are facing a shortage of 517 classrooms; 996 for secondary schools.
Classroom shortage is felt more among high school students, as classroom-student ratio was to be expected to reach 1:68, or higher, data from DepEd regional office show.
Secondary schools also lack 620 teachers and 93 for elementary schools.
The DepEd also said it was still needing 110,710 armchairs for elementary pupils and 53,447 for high school students.
