Public elementary schools fester in a state of stalemate

Saturday, June 25, 2011

LOOKING at the state of public education is like looking at a jigsaw puzzle with a lot of missing pieces. Listening to how education officials intend to make a sensible state out of it, it is like mixing all several jigsaw puzzles with a lot of missing pieces all together.

Meaning, nothing adds up, except a state of confusion.

The figures are very good. For school year 2010-2011, or last school year, teacher to student ratio was 1:40.9 in the public elementary schools in Davao City; classroom to student ratio also in elementary was 1:43.63, while school furniture to student ratio was 1:1.15.

And yet, at the start of classes, alone a little more than 300 kindergarten pupils enrolled at the Kapitan Tomas Monteverde Sr. Central Elementary School, the Department of Education (DepEd) in Davao Region said six teachers (volunteers and regulars alike) have been assigned to the KTMSCES. That alone will give a ratio of 1:50, for kindergarten alone. Of course, this is made manageable by breaking down the pupils into smaller class periods. But that does not change the absolute ratio.

As found out by Sun.Star Davao as it checked with other major public schools, there is dire lack of school furniture contrary to the claim that the ratio now is one is to one.

“We do not want to deny that there are really concerns regarding that lack of school facilities, tungod kay gasaka-gasaka ang atoang enrollees. On the first day of classes, it’s normal na ato ang situation tungod kay wala pa man gud na plastar ang tanan. Sa pagkakaron medyo ni lagpas naman ta didto sa ginatawag nato na critical na condition sa opening week, nakita na namo tong scenario, nakita na sa mga school heads tong ilang situation and then they were able to respond positively,” DepEd spokesperson Genielito Atillo told Sun.Star Davao.

As reported in the main story, one of the response is to require kindergarten children to bring their own chairs and for one teacher to run two kinder classes all at the same time.

From the DepEd 11 information kit, which Sun.Star Davao was furnished a copy of, it was stated that from the 183,171 actual public elementary school enrolment in 2010-2011, it is projected that this year, there will be 188,667.

This number does not include the 8,158 kindergarten enrollees as of April 6, 2011.

The universal kindergarten, which starts this year, is to be accommodated in the existing public elementary schools. Meaning, for this school year alone, student population of public elementary schools should have a projected increase of 5,496 for elementary grades, and more than 8,158 for kindergarten (since this is the number as of April and it is a fact that many more enrolled after that), or just around 14,000. With the existing 4,198 “instructional classrooms”, teacher to student ratio would easily change to 1:46 at the lowest possible increase in students. There is indeed truth to the fact that in KTMSCES alone, kindergarten teacher to pupil ratio is already a mind-boggling (and patience-challenging) 1:50.

But, if DepEd in Davao Region were to be asked, what seems to be unimaginable at one teacher per 50 students is in fact well below what is ideal.

Asked what is the ideal number of students in a classroom, Atillo said it’s 1:60 and that yes, they could fit in up to 80.

“Kung naa may mga rooms na naay 1 is to 80, that is because of the influx of the kids from private schools or transferees from other places. Sama sa ako ginaingon na dili jud namo na ilimod sa pagsaka sa enrollees and we’re trying our very best na mahan-ay kana because dili man pud mi pwede mubalibad sa mga enrollees (Those that have up to 80 per classroom is because of the influx of former private school students to publice schools, or the transferees from other places. But as I said, while we cannot deny the increase in number of students, we are trying our best to do what we can considering that we are not allowed to turn down entrollees),” he said.

He added that parents tend to enrol children in already congested schools when there are schools that have very few students.

“Kini lagging batasan sa pipila, labi nasa mga ginikanan nato na we'll choose really kung asa jud na school ila gusto (It’s all because parents would insist on where they will enroll their children),” he said.

What is not said here is that the schools that have few students are those where population is also small.

It was not mentioned too, whether classrooms that have been abandoned and are not used, are still part of the general inventory. As Sun.Star Davao exposed a few years back, at least one school with five classrooms has been padlocked by sitio officials and left unused for more than a decade now in Datu Ladayon at the border of Davao City and Arakan Valley in North Cotabato; to think that this place is not even that far away from civilization. How the state of classrooms is in hinterland villages of Davao City still has to be seen.

But parents shouldn’t take the blame. They want their children to get the best public education, and so they insist on having their children enrolled in schools that have been winning awards, citations, and contests.

“Kasagaran ani kining mga central schools na mahilig mag-apil ug mga activities, example kining Magallanes Schools and Kapitan Thomas Schools, kini bang mga performing schools na ginatuuhan nila, layo kaayo ug capacity sa uban schools, so ila na idasok ilang mga anak dira sa schools na daghan activity ginaapilan spite and despite nga duna nay panaghuot sa maong school (The most preferred are central elementary schools that are active in contests and are performing well, like Magallanes and Kapitan Tomas, which parents believe are giving better quality. And so they will enroll their children there even when the student population is already very big),” he added.

From this line of explanation, it is clear that quality of public education is the one in question. The same quality that is eroded by a system that refuses to acknowledge the facts that is all there to see and listen to.

Education Secretary Armin Luistro assures that public education will become better with DepEd’s alternative delivery mode, which he said, will harness the advantage of Internet to declog classrooms.

Through computer-aided instruction, children can study wherever they are and children need not raise her voice to be heard amid 80 chattering children.

But if there is anything that public schools lack more than teachers, chairs, textbooks, and classrooms, it is computers. Meaning, should this alternative mode be implemented, the logistical requirement will have to be borne by the children, who have to enrol in public schools because of sheer lack of money.

Sooner than not, it will not only be bring your own chairs, but bring your own computer as well. At least, that’s how Secretary Luistro envisions it. How the system that cannot provide chairs for just over 8,000 kindergarten children can ensure that the almost 200,000 elementary school children in the city will have access to computers has not been explained.

One other idea Luistro is considering is the use of multi-level classrooms, the same system used in hinterland villages where one teacher handles one class made up of Grade One and Two pupils, while another handles a class made of Grade Three and Four pupils.

According to him, children who were in these classrooms tended to perform better than children from single-level classes. This was found out in a study, he said, at the sidelines of the inauguration of Fr. Joel Tabora SJ as the new university president of the Ateneo de Davao University, two weeks ago.

Incidentally, it has often been the observation of those in the academe that the pupils from the hinterlands, who are in multi-level schools, covered less lessons than their counterparts in central elementary schools. How it was determined that these same children performed better, was again not explained by Sec. Luistro.

All he said what thay he is convinced that multi-level classes are more appropriate for the present situation.

"Habang dini-divide yung klase sa dalawa, unahin muna niya (teacher) yung grade one, pangalawa yung grade two," Luistro said.

Moreso, Luistro does not believe building more classrooms will solve the problem.

"Sa katunayan, tinitinganan namin ang kakulangan sa classrooms, marami sa ating eskwelahan doon sa probinsya ay may sobrang teachers at sobrang upuan at classroom," Luistro said. Where these public schools with more than enough classrooms, chairs, and teachers are, was again not enumerated. One thing is sure, it is not in the provinces of Davao Region.