Coping with challenges in pursuit of basic education
SINCE yesterday, it’s back to school for students in our country’s public school system that remains plagued with perennial difficulties—shortage of classrooms, teachers, textbooks, facilities, school supplies, instructional materials, among others.
For those attending private schools, the difficulties confronting parents concern the increase in tuition cost. The Department of Education recently approved a tuition hike in 1,246 private schools from kindergarten to high school levels, with the increase ranging from 1.25 percent to as much as 29 percent.
And for students in far-flung barangays where schools are scarce and physical accessibility to these present a great impediment to getting basic education, the challenges lie in surmounting travel hardships—children carrying their load of books have to walk for hours, cross rivers, or climb hills and mountains—to reach school, rain or shine.
Not only students face difficulties, but teachers as well. Some complain that they are expected to handle the new curriculum on the ongoing K-to-12 program with only a week’s training. Others lament that instruction materials were delivered so late that they had to present lessons on Manila paper which they had to prepare through the night, adding to the stress they get in working more than one shift and teaching students who tend to become restless in cramped classrooms.
While Dep-Ed officials claim there is no more shortage of classrooms or the shortage, if ever, is not as severe as in previous years, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers has insisted that the classroom shortage all over the country is pegged at 67,849, adding that despite the huge sum of P37.67 billion granted by Congress to build 43,183 classrooms in 2014, only 7,052 classrooms or 16 percent of the target was completed.
The issue of classroom shortage in congested Metro Manila schools reached a disturbing point a year ago when Dep-Ed revealed a proposal to divide the student population and implement a three-day school week (with classes 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays-Fridays and Tuesdays-Thursdays-Saturdays) despite President Aquino’s announcement that the accumulated classroom backlog has been cleared.
Fortunately, such idea was set aside pending further study. Instead, schools were decongested by distributing students to schools with available classrooms thru the busing system. Students of the Batasan Hill National High School in Quezon City, for instance, were transported to schools in Cubao. Also, students from Malinta Elementary School in Valenzuela City were transported daily to Karuhatan West Elementary School with fuel expenses shouldered by the local school board.
Another measure to address school congestion is the early registration period, held January 24 to February 27 for this year, in all public elementary and secondary schools to get an estimate on the number of incoming students and address potential problems even before June’s regular registration.
If congestion afflicts public schools, it’s the opposite in private schools. Dwindling enrollment continues as more students with financial problems transfer to public schools where tuition is free, and private school teachers are also transferring to public schools where pay is more attractive. Entry-level public school teachers now get about P21,000 monthly, a far cry from their private counterparts whose entry-level salary and allowance average only about P15,000 monthly.
The yearly tuition increase in private schools—70 percent of which are supposed to go to salaries of teachers—is meant to close the pay gap. But with the continuing exodus of private school teachers, one wonders if the intention is being fulfilled. A formal inquiry could ferret out the truth if tuition increases indeed increase salaries or just the profits of school owners.
As for impoverished schoolchildren in the countryside whose fundamental right to avail of basic education is hindered by physically-exhausting walking distance, difficult terrain or topography, vast stretches of water, and other obstacles in this archipelagic and mountainous country of ours, government and more private sector help could provide boat rides and “school habal-habal” which can be more efficient than school buses.
Even more of the sturdy bicycles like the ones donated by a Dutch financial institution (ING Bank) to students of New Taugtog National High School in Botolan, Zambales would be a tremendous help. And the DPWH and LGUs could build more footbridges like the one in Sitio Madlum in Bulacan where schoolchildren can now cross the river safely unlike when they risked their lives on an improvised “monkey bridge” in the past.
The pursuit of basic education is a fundamental right. The support of all sectors is vital if we are to conquer the various challenges confronting Filipino schoolchildren so eager to learn as they yearn to succeed in life.