Grade Five students of the Pardo Elementary School line up for the flag-raising ceremony on Wednesday, November 2, 2022, the first day of full five-day face-to-face classes. CDN Digital photo | Wenilyn B. Sabalo
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The start of the mandatory five-day in-person classes for students on Wednesday, November 2, 2022, highlighted the lack of classrooms in a school in Cebu City.
With a population of almost 5,000 students, the Pardo Elementary School in Cebu City ideally requires 111 classrooms. However, at present, the school is only utilizing 40 classrooms.
The school’s principal Elsie Colo told CDN Digital that repair works for the remaining classrooms destroyed by Super Typhoon Odette (international name Rai) is still ongoing, so the school still has to use its ancillary rooms as classrooms, like isolation room and laboratory rooms, to augment the existing 40 classrooms.
‘Not being left attended’
The school is also implementing the scheduling of classes for lower levels, wherein two teachers for kindergarten use one classroom at a different time of the day.
“Sa atong mga logistics, ato ra g’yod ng gipaningkamutan nga mahatag nato ang atong mga needs sa atong mga bata, especially katong atong mga ayuhonon nga mga classrooms,” she said.
“Atong gihinay-hinayan using our funds sa MOOE and then we are also encouraging the alumni to participate in the repairs of the classrooms, and also there is a coming two temporary learning areas that will be built here (by DepEd) considering we have a shortage of classrooms,” she added.
Colo said the school aims to have its music room, laboratory rooms, and Student Pupil Government (SPG) room, which are currently lacking in the school as they are currently being utilized as classrooms.
The Department of Education (DepEd) central office has already been notified of the school’s request for more classrooms, she said.
Moreover, Colo said they also submitted to the DepEd Cebu City Division their request for additional 13 teachers. Colo assured that as of now, all the pupils at school are ‘not being left attended.’
“We have to solve it. Naa man tay maximum and minimum (number of students in a class) like for example, for grades one to three, the minimum is 30 (1:30 ratio of teacher to students) and the maximum is 35. But ang atong mga bata sa teacher-pupil ratio, naabot na siya og 1:28,” she said.
Classrooms destroyed by Super Typhoon Odette
Colo said Super Typhoon Odette, which battered parts of Visayas and Mindanao last December 2021, severely destroyed 18 of their classrooms and partially destroyed 13 others.
As of now, only five classrooms still need minor repairs, such as ceiling repair and repairs for broken pipes and water connections in the school.
“Nag target ta og December 30 (for all the repairs), but target pa na. As of now, mutabang sad namo ang atoang LSB (Local School Board). For example, nagpalit mi og materials unya sila ang mo panday or sila both. Naa silay ilang materials ug naa pod sila’y panday,” she said.
The school’s parents-teachers association (PTA) has also donated paints and other materials to fix the classrooms and other school facilities.
Class scheduling
Due to the school’s shortage of classroom even though they are already using all the ancillary classrooms, Colo said they adopted some emergency class set up.
“Ang teachers mag share sila og room. Naay morning session, naa poy afternoon session from Grade One to Grade Four. Inana sila ang solution nga atong gi-adopt. Sa Grade Five and Grade Six, whole day jud sila,” she told CDN Digital.
“Ang kinder nato, duha pod sila ka teachers nag share sa room kay naa man na silay tag two sessions. Nahimo siyang four sessions sa usa ka room. Tag three hours lang,” she added.
Safety measures
Colo said that based on the Department Order no. 34 series of 2022, their students are still required to wear their face masks while they are on campus.
Another safety measure they are implementing, she said, is also the constant reminder for the students to wash their hands properly before eating.
The school also instructed their students to not face each other while they are eating.
“There is no such thing as substitute for the face-to-face g’yod classes. Ang effective g’yod nga teaching nato is face-to-face,” she said.
/bmjo
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DepEd orders all schools to shift to face-to-face classes by November 2