MORE than seven months after Typhoon Odette (Rai), the Department of Education (DepEd) Cebu City Division is not yet ready for the implementation of full face-to-face (F2F) classes in November as hundreds of classrooms in the city are still undergoing repair.
The full F2F classes will follow after the partial F2F classes end on October 31.
Dr. Bernadette Susvilla, assistant division superintendent of DepEd Cebu City, said there are still 684 classrooms whose roofs have not yet been repaired after being damaged by Typhoon Odette on December 16, 2021.
Of the 840 classrooms in the city, only 156 have been fixed by the Local School Board of the Cebu City Government, Susvilla said Friday, August 5, 2022.
The limited F2F classes would already start on August 22, 2022, but the DepEd official expressed doubts if they can accommodate all the 172,491 public school students due to the lack of classrooms.
Susvilla said only 126 public elementary and high schools in the city are prepared for the opening of limited F2F classes after undergoing repairs and maintenance by members of their respective Parent-Teacher Associations, civic groups, non-government organizations, and other volunteers through the DepEd’s Brigada Eskwela program.
The DepEd official said they had made a request to their head office to allow them to hold limited F2F classes until the end of school year 2022-2023, but the latter had yet to grant approval for this.
Susvilla said DepEd Cebu City needs around P330 million for the repair of the 840 classrooms, but they received only P3 million from DepEd.
The typhoon worsened the classroom shortage in the city.
The DepEd Cebu City Division has 4,726 classrooms, which is short of the 5,153 classrooms needed to accommodate all the students.
The situation is different in Danao City, where DepEd Danao City Division superintendent Dr. Leah P. Noveras assured that the schools are ready to provide full face-to-face classes on November 2, considering that “all our 60 public and seven private schools implemented the limited physical classes with safety seal last School Year 2021-2022.” (TPT)