Palace sees 1:33 classroom-to-student ratio this school year

When school opens on June 4, there will be fewer shortage in classrooms and books, at least on paper. The "lowered" shortages were announced in Saturday's command conference on "Oplan Balik Eskwela 2007," which President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo presided over in Manila's Sta. Mesa district. A Palace statement said Mrs Arroyo claimed her administration is "achieving its annual targets in education as she hopes for a 1:33 classroom-to-student ratio or 33 students/pupils per classroom." Last year’s target was one classroom for 50 students. This year's target was one classroom for 45 students. Education Secretary Jesli Lapus reported that the present inventory of 417,789 classrooms is being beefed up with the "ongoing procurement" of 6,409 additional classrooms. Aside from Lapus, among those who attended the conference were Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. and officials of the Health, Defense, Trade and Industry, Transportation, Public Works and Highways departments, and Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA). During the meeting, Mrs Arroyo inspected the facilities of the P. Burgos Elementary School, distributed textbooks to pupils and witnessed the repainting and repair of school desks, tables and chairs by volunteers. The DepEd’s inventory of books shows a total of 84.8 million books, with 12 million delivered last January. Some 11.9 million more books are now in the pipeline in "additional procurement," Lapus said. The DepEd is targeting a 1:1 book-to-student ratio in every subject, starting with English, Mathematics and Science books which, at present, are "more than adequate." Books are updated/changed every five years. This year, there will also be "sufficient" chairs for the country’s public elementary and high school students with the DepEd’s inventory of 14.92 million chairs. The delivery of an "additional procurement" of 2.4 million chairs is also being awaited. Meanwhile, the DepEd assured Arroyo that it is prioritizing the rehabilitation of classrooms in typhoon-stricken areas, and the implementation of the "universal medical and dental check" among students. During the conference, Mrs Arroyo called on school officials not to turn away any student for non-payment of contributions. "Nobody should be turned away for non-payment," she said as Lapus reported that only four contributions are allowed by DepEd to be collected from students – the fees for the Boy Scouts of the Philippines, the Girl Scouts of the Philippines, the Red Cross and the Anti-TB Campaign. She also ordered the DepEd secretary to monitor the prices of school supplies. Meanwhile, the DepEd said the now annual four-year-old Brigada Eskwela has been participated in by some 38,900 schools, or some 85 percent of all schools nationwide. Started in 2003, the Brigada is the "annual nationwide voluntary effort of teachers, parents, students, community members and other organizations to do minor repairs in their schools in preparation for the opening of the school year." Last year, the Brigada gathered 3.4 million volunteer man-hours worth P1.2 billion; realized donations totaling P843 million; and generated community maintenance operation expenses totaling P2.931 billion, the DepEd said. During the meeting, Arroyo also lauded teachers for their poll duty in the last May 14 election. - GMANews.TV