SOME of the students of Guadalupe Elementary School in Cebu City are still sleepy as they wait for the singing of the Philippine National Anthem during the opening of classes for school year 2018-2019 on June 4, 2018.
PUBLIC SCHOOL CONGESTION WOES
Funds are available but many public schools, particularly in Cebu City, no longer have the space for new classrooms — DepEd
Janel Panghao, a Grade 7 student, attends a class of 68 in a public junior high school in Mandaue City.
The school where Panghao goes to only holds half-day classes to accommodate the close to a thousand students from Grades 7 to 10.
Grades 9 and 10 students attend class at 6:30 a.m. until 12 noon.
The students will have to completely vacate the classrooms by 12:15 p.m. to make way for the Grade 7 and 8 students who will hold class in the same classrooms until 5:45 p.m.
The Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd-7) admits that the lack of classrooms in public schools is still prevalent.
But Dr. Juliet Jeruta, DepEd-7 regional director, said that the lack of classrooms is not because of lack of funds but due to the absence of buildable space.
Jeruta said that schools, particularly in the cities, have very little space left, making it difficult to build additional classrooms and cope with the increasing number of students.
Based on the DepEd-7 data, 4,479 classrooms have been approved for construction since 2016. Of this number, however, only 329 classrooms have been completed, while the construction of some 2,322 classrooms still on hold.
Projects for over 400 classrooms have not been started while the funds for 56 classrooms projects in the region had reverted to the government’s
coffers.
Unfinished jobs
In Cebu City, P173 million was allocated in 2017 for the building of 68 classrooms and P710 million was appropriated for the 387 classrooms in 2016.
“From our list, there are still (unfinished) constructions from 2016, 2017, and now we will be starting with 2018 constructions,” said Jeruta.
“One of the problems in the city is that there are allocations but you cannot receive it because there’s no buildable space,” said Jeruta.
Jeruta said that classroom buildings in the schools in the city have to be remodeled or replaced in order to make way for the construction of new buildings.
“That is why we should decide if the city should demolish it first before we replace it with how many storeys or where shall we place the new buildings because you need a space for that,” said Jeruta.
According to Jeruta, school buildings in the cities should at least be five storeys to fit to the limited space.
“It needed sort of a remodeling of the existing ones before we put up of the new designs because what we have in the city should be high-rise (buildings). We do not have space anymore for new constructions,” Jeruta said.
“There is no problem about allocation and the budget because the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has already allocated
corresponding budget for that,” Jeruta said.
However, Jeruta said the timeline for the work and its completion still depend on the contractors who won in the bidding.
Jeruta said the Education department has had coordination meetings with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to expedite the completion of the projects.
In an interview with Cebu Daily News, DPWH-7 Director Ador Canlas clarified that the contractors of the DepEd projects have been doing their best to complete the projects at the soonest time possible.
He added that contractors are already pressed with time because of the new policy of the national government to revert the funds to the national coffers if the projects will not be implemented within a year.
Canlas said that one concern in delivering the projects is that only very few contractors have been joining the bidding for DepEd projects.
As a result, Canlas said, one contractor may win several projects because of the few number of bidders.
Solution
The Cebu City government, on the other hand, has found a way to address the classroom congestion in the city.
Councilor Joy Augustus Young, chairman of the City Council’s Committee on Education, plans to open two new barangay schools in order to decongest the existing schools.
The two schools include an elementary school in Barangay San Jose, and a high school in Barangay Inayawan.
“We were able to purchase a lot in San Jose, so makaingon ta nga sigurado na na (so we can say it is already a sure thing). That’s going to be the new San Jose Elementary School,” said Young.
The lot in Inayawan where the new school will be built is owned by the city government, according to Young.
At present, Barangay Inayawan only has a night high school that shares classrooms with the elementary school.
Young said that he will be proposing to the City Council that the funding for the new schools will be included in the 2019 budget.
Young added that they were also looking at the possibility of either constructing additional school buildings or opening additional schools, but his committee is yet to find the locations for these projects.
Jeruta welcomed Young’s plans but advised the city government to consider how the buildings would be built in order to maximize the space that would be allocated for the school buildings.
“We are discouraging the construction of one-storey building. You better think of the future,” she said.
She added it would be best for the local government to coordinate with the school heads in order for them to come up with the best development plan for a particular school.