Monday, June 09, 2008
Student count to reach 1.3M
By Elisabeth P. Baumgart
Sun.Star Correspondent
AROUND 1.3 million students are expected to attend the first day of classes tomorrow in Central Visayas, where public schools still lack classrooms, teachers, chairs and textbooks.
The Department of Education (DepEd) 7 is estimating a two percent increase in the student population this school year.
“This year, we are expecting about 30,000 more students,” DepEd 7 Director Carolino Mordeno told Sun.Star Cebu.
According to DepEd 7’s Basic Education Information System (BEIS) Quick Count last year, 916,997 students were enrolled in the elementary level and 371,875 students were enrolled in the secondary level.
The Cebu Schools Division had the highest number of enrollees in both the elementary and high school levels with 301,349 and 120,836, respectively.
Apart from having the highest number of enrollees, the Cebu Schools Division was also among the region’s school districts with the highest teacher need in both levels. It lacked 185 teachers in the elementary level and 220 in the secondary level.
It also lacked 1,144 classrooms in elementary level and 2,101 classrooms in the secondary level last year.
During the same period, Central Visayas had 24,600 classrooms for the elementary level and only 6,564 classrooms for the secondary level.
But the student to classroom ratio in the Cebu City Schools Division soared, with 51 elementary students to one classroom and an average of 80 secondary students to a classroom.
“We still lack a lot of classrooms,” Mordeno admitted.
More classrooms
This year, DepEd 7 and the Department of Works and Highways (DPWH) 7, are constructing more classrooms throughout the region.
As of May 2008, 421 extra classrooms are to be constructed, DepEd 7 Assistant Director Recaredo Borgonia told Sun.Star Cebu.
Aside from the shortage of classrooms, the school districts also need more chairs.
Elementary schools lacked 112,516 chairs while secondary school needed 77,266 more.
The school district of Bayawan City in Oriental Negros recorded a student to chair ratio of 1:2 in its high schools.
For the whole region, however, the ratio is at 1:1.19.
“Everywhere, we always have that problem,” said Mordeno.
Since late enrollees are still expected this week, DepEd 7 will wait for the end of the enrollment period before it will determine the total number of chairs needed and address the problem in the whole region.
Teachers
As for the lack of teachers, the BEIS Quick Count Teacher Deployment Analysis and Need for the last school year said the region lacked 517 teachers in the elementary level and 706 teachers in the secondary level.
Bayawan City in Oriental Negros was also most affected by the lack of teachers. It had a teacher to student ratio of 1:51.74 and 1:73.49 in elementary and secondary levels, respectively.
Ideally, the teacher to student ratio should be 1:40 to 45, said Borgonia.
Both Mordeno and Borgonia admit that the region is losing teachers but said it could still serve the student population with its current workforce.
“Okay ra man ta. But kung atong striktuhon ang one teacher is to 45 students (ratio), kuwangan pa gyud ta (We could still manage. But we’re no longer meeting the ideal 1:45 teacher to student ratio),” said Mordeno.
Textbooks
But both officials said that the textbook to student ratio is almost to 1:1.
“We have an enough number of textbooks but there is a problem regarding the number of textbooks per title. If you add up all number of textbooks in a certain grade level, we have more than enough. But basically, the titles of all these books are different,” said Borgonia.
Recently, DepEd 7 has also released the chalk allowances for teachers so they could use them once school opens.
For the other supplies, Borgonia said they will have to leave it up to the principals on how they will spend the money allocated for the schools to buy what they need.
“The principal will make the decisions for the schools, so that (the assessment of needs) will be school-based,” he said.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (June 9, 2008 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here. |
