By Ina Hernando Malipot
Despite the readiness of the Department of Education, school year 2018-2019 opened yesterday to the same old problems faced by students and teachers in public schools.
Lack of basic education resources in some public schools in highly urbanized areas marked the first day of classes. Some public schools reported overcrowding of students due to unfinished classrooms while others complained of lack of chairs, among others.
Education Secretary Leonor Briones personally visited the Quezon City High School in Diliman, Quezon City to personally monitor the first day of classes.
Briones said that the DepEd continuously monitors the basic education resources needed by public schools.
She said that 85,000 classrooms are expected to be built this school year to address the lack of classrooms.
Due to “lack of buildable space,” she said that DepEd is looking into “building multi-story buildings to solve this problem” especially in the National Capital Region.
Education Undersecretary for Planning and Field Operations Jesus Mateo said that the opening of classes was “generally smooth and orderly.”
While there are schools that lack classrooms and other resources, Mateo assured that the DepEd is continuously addressing all these.
Briones said that DepEd has conducted a nationwide inventory and assessment of the readiness of public schools in terms of six basic education inputs or variables: Teachers, classrooms, seats, toilets, and availability of water and electricity.
