Medellin mayor rants: Without classrooms, no classes to resume yet

What school resumption?

The school, both private and public have been left in ruins by supertyphoon Yolanda so there no resumption of classes to talk of, a furious Medellin Mayor Ricky Ramirez said of the announcement by education authorities.

“Private and public schools in the municipality, Ramirez addre “are not ready” to resume classes yet.

He notes that attendance was poor yesterday as most schools don’t even have roofs or a proper classroom environment.

He also says that the Department of Education (DepEd) has not even reached out to the municipal government to extend possible aid and discuss matters regarding school repairs.

“No one from DepEd even bothered to come to town; or at least come to my office. There is no semblance of any repair for school buildings,” Ramirez said.

Ramirez says that their first priority regarding education is to work on immediate repairs. On a scale of 1 to 10, ten being the highest, Ramirez says that only a few schools can even be rated 5. Some, he says cannot even be rated 1.

“Dili ra ba kay tropical depression to ha. Perteng kusoga jod aton’ng bagyo-ha (We didn’t experience a mere tropical depression. We experienced a supertyphoon),” the mayor said.

Other than rebuilding broken fixtures and edifices, the Medellin mayor also said that they need new textbooks and other school supplies for students – many left homeless by Yolanda.

DepEd Provincial Superintendent Arden Monisit says that it was Secretary Armin Luistro who gave him the marching order to have the classes start on Tuesday, November 18.

Monisit met with the district supervisors of the 13 municipalities to echo Luistro’s order.

He says that all municipalities were represented by a district supervisor. The 13 municiaplities are as follows: Sogod, Borbon, Tabogon, San Remegio, Medellin, Daanbantayan, Madridejos, Santa Fe, Bantayan, San Fransisco, Poro, Tudela, and Pilar.

Monisit also clarified that he visited Medellin on November 14 with division supervisors and area consultants. He even said that he already has a complete list of the damages in the schools of Medellin. “DepEd engineers also checked Medellin already.”

Asked why he didn’t drop by Mayor Ricky’s office, he says he just went there to assess the schools and even distribute relief goods as it was a non-political visit.

“I was there for the students. I didn’t go there for politics,” Monisit added.

Monisit also defends that the essence of the classes resuming on November 18, isn’t to immediately start formal classes but to gather the students.

“Dili mana ingnon strict classes dayon. Ang pagpundok ra ana, ang pag check sa attendance, and even for stress debriefing. This isn’t to comply with the usual 8am-5pm time frame.

Kanus-a pa man diay ta mag klase ug balik, ig Marso? (We don’t expect schools to start formal classes right away. That’s just to check their attendance, make sure the students are okay, and even for stress debriefing. It’s not the usual 8 hour school time frame. When are we going to resume classes, on March?),” Monisit said.