CLARK FREEPORT – Central Luzon is wanting of at least 4,000 classrooms more as the number of students continue to increase with each passing year.
It has become a perennial problem, said Department of Education (DepEd) Central Luzon regional director Beatriz G. Torno who graced the “Talk Widus” media forum organized by the Pampanga Press Club in cooperation with Widus Hotel and Casino here on Wednesday.
In Pampanga, the shortage is felt mostly in the coastal communities of Macabebe and Masantol which are prone to flooding, Torno said. “This is mainly because most of the schools were used as evacuation sites during continuous heavy rains and typhoons.”
Torno noted though the surplus of teachers in the region as there are now 84,917 teachers for the K-12 program.
For years, schools have been identified as evacuation sites every time a calamity strikes because they are the only place where there are readily available structures in communities that can accommodate a large number of people.
However, the use of schools as evacuation centers has affected students in the aftermath of disasters.
Torno said another factor which contributes to the backlog of classrooms is the public works department being the implementor of DepEd funds in the construction of school buildings.
“We have the funds but the DPWH is the implementor,” she said, lamenting “So medyo may kabagalan, kase ang (So it’s a little bit slow because) DPWH would rather build roads and bridges. School buildings are only a second priority.”
Torno said the DepEd can conduct the bidding for construction but the law says it’s the DPWH that should implement it.
“That is why everything now is being handled by the public works department,” she said. “Every budget hearing, we always say that our backlog in school buildings has increased.”
Because of this perennial problem, DepEd has adopted the shifting method where students are divided into three shifts, as in the case of the National Capital Region (NCR), and two shifts for Central Luzon, to accommodate the increasing number of students, Torno said.
In this connection, the regional director said the DepEd successfully conducted the first day of the early registration last January 26, noting a huge turnout of incoming Kindergarten, Grades 1, 7, and 11 learners who trooped to public schools across the country to be pre-registered for School Year (SY) 2019-2020.
DepEd said as of January 28, Monday, a total of 760,530 learners already had their information encoded in the Early Registration Module of the Learner Information System (LIS).
The Education Department also observed a more organized early registration compared to the previous years, mainly due to the strengthened information dissemination and the issuance of DepEd Order No. 3, series 2018 (Basic Education Enrollment Policy), which unified the policies on enrollment and clarified the requirements. The DO also helped minimize the common questions of parents/guardians on pre-registering their children, specifically on the age requirement for Kindergarten and Grade 1. The teachers readily assisted the parents/ guardians and the learners at easily accessible pre-registration areas within the schools.
Torno, who will be retiring on February 14 when she turns 65, is the 2018 Most Outstanding Kapampangan Awardee for education and is the first Kapampangan DepEd regional director.
Accompanying Torno in the forum was assistant director Nick Capulong and public information officer Michelle Catap-Lacson.
