Help desks set up in schools in Cebu City, Cebu province

While some parents help clean classrooms during the Brigada Eskwela, others troop to school to find where their children’s classrooms are located.
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA

CLASSES START

As parents do their last minute rush to buy school uniforms and supplies as part of their preparations for the start of classes of public schools today (Monday), education officials are also preparing to make lives of parents and students easier by setting up help desks manned by non-advisory teachers near the entrances of these schools in Cebu City.

Bianito Dagatan, Cebu City Division superintendent of the Department of Education (DepEd), said that finding the classrooms that they would be in had always been the challenge of students and parents on the first day of classes.

Dagatan said the help desks would assist and make it easier for these parents and students to locate their classrooms.

Aside from that, Dagatan also advised public school teachers and school advisers to post the names of the students on the outside wall of their classrooms.

Dagatan said that he would be expecting an increase in the estimated 170,000 students for this school year because enrollment would still be ongoing today.

On the backlog of classrooms, he said that they could not determine yet of any shortage of classrooms for students until the enrollment period ends on Friday this week.

Dagatan also cited the holding of night classes in some secondary public schools in the city as a way to address this problem.

“The (holding of) night classes in Cebu City is a solution to prevent classroom shortage,” Dagatan told Cebu Daily News.

He said that Cebu City has 58 elementary schools and 54 secondary schools.

Of the 54 secondary schools, 29 of these schools have night classes.

He also cited the repair of some classrooms as another solution to the problem, but he did not elaborate how many classrooms are being repaired.

He also said that another option being considered to address the possible classroom shortage would be to use non-academic rooms like laboratory rooms to hold regular classes.

Education officials in Cebu province, on the other hand, are expecting a half million students from kindergarten to senior high school to troop to the schools today.

Rhea Mar Angtud, Cebu provincial school division superintendent, said help desks would also be put up in all schools in the province to accommodate students, especially those who are transferees.

There are 1,136 schools in the entire Cebu province.

For the province, Angtud said that there would be no classroom shortage if ongoing constructions of some schools would be done.

As schools are expected to tighten their security, Dagatan said that they would be coordinating with the Cebu City Police Office and the local government units (LGUs) regarding this matter.