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More than the lack of teachers and classrooms, the Department of Education in Central Visayas (DepEd 7) is faced with the bigger challenge of ensuring that all public schools in the region have hand washing facilities.
As classes in public elementary and secondary schools open today, DepEd 7 will have to make sure that these hand washing facilities are in place and soaps are in steady supply as part of the protection of students against the dreaded Influenza A(H1N1) virus.
The DepEd instituted the hand washing regulation in schools as it has been known to control the spread of infectious diseases by at least 47 percent, said DepEd 7 Regional Director Recaredo Borgonia.
Borgonia estimated that around 1.4 million students would troop to different elementary and secondary public schools in the region starting today.
The figure is 2.1 percent higher than the 1.32 million students who attended school in the last school year, Borgonia said.
Last school year, there were one million pupils in the elementary level and over 300,000 high school students enrolled in around 3,200 public elementary and secondary schools across the region.
Usual problems like lack of teachers, armchairs or desks and classrooms were expected, Borgonia said.
These concerns, he stressed, were ?manageable.?
Supplies of books were no longer a problem as DepEd has already achieved a 1:1 ratio of book per student, he said.
The more pressing concern is the health of the school children, Borgonia stressed.
Borgonia said he received a memorandum from the DepEd central office last weekend that required all DepEd offices across the country to make certain that each school - even those in far-flung villages ? has its own hand washing facilities and soaps.
The memorandum stated that school superintendents must report to the DepEd regional directors how many schools do not have that facility as of today.
Regional directors like Borgonia would in turn forward the report to the DepEd central office.
Therefore, every school head must report to their respective school superintendent if their school has acquired or not a hand washing facility, he said.
Borgonia said the schools could make makeshift hand washing facility if they have no direct water supply from faucets.
These schools could get tap water somewhere else and store them in recycled bottles or containers of purified water.
Schools with existing water tanks could also set up their hand washing facilities close to the tanks, he said.
To buy soaps, each school head could utilize the school?s Maintenance Operating and Other Expenses (MOOE) fund, Borgonia said.
Each school has MOOE budget equivalent to P207 for every elementary student and P509 per high school student, he said.
Students would not be barred from bringing their own water and soap if they would want to, said Borgonia.
Borgonia said it would also be better for school children to bring their own food ? snacks and packed lunches ? to ensure that the foods were safely prepared.
School children were also encouraged to bring handkerchiefs, he said.
Starting today, DepEd 7 will deploy at least 10 doctors and 100 nurses in schools across the region as part of the Universal Health Examination of school children, he revealed.
Borgonia said teachers were likewise directed to monitor the health condition of their students and to immediately report to the Department of Health any suspected A H1N1 flu case.
Before to the opening of classes, Borgonia said he met with schools superintendents to discuss measures to protect students from the dreaded swine flu.
The school superintendents then briefed the district supervisors who, in turn, met with school heads.
The school heads were responsible for briefing their respective teachers to make sure that the opening of classes would be smooth and that the children?s health would be protected.
As to the lack of teachers, at least 1,000 of last year?s batch of public school teachers in Central Visayas would also not be able to return to their schools in time for the opening of classes today.
Borgonia said the affected teachers were hired by their respective local government units (LGUs) whose contracts had expired last school year.
Borgonia however said the lack of teachers would only be temporary since DepEd 7 was allowed to hire around the same number of teachers.
He said the displaced teachers could ask for renewal of their contracts with their LGUs but most opted not to do it yet since they were hoping to get teaching positions under DepEd, which provides higher pay and security of tenure.
The application for new DepEd teachers started last January but the process was ?very long,? Borgonia said.
An applicant was required to submit his/her transcript of record, diploma and license to the school heads who, after evaluating the documents, would forward them to the district office where the interview, teaching demonstration and tests, including the English Proficiency Test, were done.
The results were then forwarded to the division office where it was decided if the applicant would be included in the Registry of Qualified Applicants. The list would then be returned to the schools where the teachers signified his/her interest to teach where it would be scrutinized by a school selection committee. The committee would recommend the successful applicants to the school superintendent for approval.
Borgonia said appointments of new teachers would be released anytime in June.
Special teachers, or those without advisory classes, and school principals had been directed to temporary handle the classes pending the appointments of new teachers, Borgonia said.
He said DepEd 7 also has problems with armchairs and classrooms but these concerns were already being addressed with new school buildings now under construction and with purchases of armchairs already in the pipeline.
He said DepEd has already constructed more than 500 new school buildings in the region.
For schools that lack classrooms, the school principal could divide the class hours to morning and afternoon sessions, he said.
He said each classroom has a minimum of 15 to 60 students, or up to 40 only for those in the lower grades, or from Grades 1 to 3.
Cops, enforcers ready for schools? opening
CEBU City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) chief Arnel Tancinco has meanwhile assured they were prepared for the opening of classes today.
But Tancinco they would not be deploying the 300 traffic enforcers estimated to be needed for the school opening under Oplan Balik Eskwela, as private schools would not open until next week.
Tancinco said Citom would only have to deploy one enforcer in the vicinity of the public school to provide traffic assistance and ensure flowing traffic in streets located near schools.
Next week, he said, they would have to deploy more enforcers in the private schools and the main streets leading to the schools.
The enforcers would be deployed starting at 7 a.m. Barangay tanods (village watchmen) were expected to augment the enforcers, Tancinco said.
More policemen would be deployed today along school vicinities to ensure the safety of students, said Supt. Erson Digal, the outgoing director of the Cebu Provincial Police Office
Digal said they would establish police assistance desk in every school where students and parents could easily ask for assistance if necessary.
He said the police would also be ready to respond to petty crimes, such as snatching, robberies and pick pockets, and other crimes, even those that involve fraternity wars, he said.
Senior Supt. Patrocinio Comendador Jr., director of the Cebu City Police Office, said additional policemen would also be deployed in various school areas in the city while operatives of the Mobile Patrol Group would conduct preventive patrols in these areas.
Comendador said they already coordinated with school administrators to ensure the safety of students.
The Regional Operation and Plans Division (ROPD) of the Police Regional Office (PRO-7) has issued memorandum to all city and provincial directors in Central Visayas to submit an hourly report as classes open today.
The order required the deployment of policemen in school vicinities from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. today.
The Cebu City council meanwhile supported the move of the Department of Education (DepEd) and of Trade Industry (DTI) to ensure that prices of school supplies remained stable as classes in all public elementary and high schools open today.
The City Council last week adopted in mass motion a resolution authored by Councilor Arsenio Pacaña expressing full support to the move of DepEd and DTI ?to look into alleged occurrence of illegal price hikes on school-related commodities as formal opening of schools draw near.?
The resolution noted that ?while dealers and retailers of school supplies have made assurances to keep prices of school supplies stable as raw materials particularly for paper products have gone down worldwide, it is unfortunate that there are unscrupulous traders would take advantage of the situation by illegally jacking up the prices of school supplies at the expense of the helpless consumers.?
The consumers, mainly the parents of school children, need to be protected against unfair and unconscionable sales acts and deceptive practices of business establishments, the resolution stressed.
Copies of the resolution were furnished to Cebu City Schools Superintendent Dr. Lorna Raches and DTI provincial director Nelia Navarro. /Correspondents Chito O. Aragon, Fe Marie Dumaboc and Rizel Sabanal-Adlawan
