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Classroom, teacher shortages to welcome new school year, lawmaker warns


A shortage of more than 200,000 classrooms and 100,000 teachers faces students in elementary and high schools this coming school year with the implementation of the K to 12 program, a lawmaker said.
 
Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon on Thursday said that with over 21 million basic education students in all levels expected to enroll for school year 2015-2016, the Philippines will still need a total of 209,539 classrooms, given the ratio of one classroom per 30 students.
 
Meanwhile, 114,304 teachers are still needed to teach the expected number of enrollees. About 2.5 million sanitation and water facilities and 60 million textbooks are also needed, according to Ridon.
 
Ridon based his estimates on the latest data provided by the Department of Education on enrollment and existing classrooms and teachers across the country.
 
“The school year will open in a bleak tone, with students and parents not only facing new and higher fees, but also the same old problem of shortages in classrooms, books, teachers, and facilities,” he said in a press conference at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.
 
In a May 11 press release, the DepEd said that preparations for the implementation of K to 12 are on track.
 
"In fact, DepEd has built 86,478 classrooms and hired 128,105 teachers from 2010 to 2014. DepEd has already requested funds for the construction of 27,499 classrooms, and will be hiring 37,000 teachers in 2016 for Senior High School alone," the department said then.
 
The close to 30,000 classrooms that will be constructed are meant to accommodate an expected 1.2 million learners expected to enroll in Grade 11, or around 40 students to a classroom.
 
Ridon said that “with the government’s continued misprioritization [sic], coupled with the disastrous implementation of the K to 12 program, students will again suffer from overcrowded classrooms, lack of books, and overloaded teachers. How can our schools be conducive for learning under such circumstances?”
 
Under the DepEd’s enhanced basic education program, a student will be required to undergo kindergarten, six years of elementary, four years of junior high school and two years of senior high school.
 
The implementation of universal kindergarten began in school year 2011-2012, followed by a new curriculum for Grade 7 in school year 2012-2013.
 
School year 2016-2017 will mark the nationwide implementation of the Grade 11 curriculum, to be followed by the Grade 12 curriculum in school year 2017-2018.
 
Ridon is opposed to the impending implementation of the K to 12 program this year, saying the government has yet to resolve issues about the budget allotted for the program, the curriculum, as well as the impact it will have on students, parents, teachers and non-teaching personnel. 
 
P29-B transition fund
 
Meanwhile, the House Committee on Higher and Technical Education has approved a measure creating a transition fund to minimize the impact of the implementation of the K to 12 program on all higher education institutions (HEIs).
 
The measure, authored by panel chair Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo, proposes the establishment of a P29-billion Tertiary Education Transition Fund to provide financial assistance to academic and non-academic personnel and HEIs affected by the new education program.
 
The proposed fund will also be used to provide grants and scholarships without teaching load in 2016 and 2017 to enable HEIs to upgrade their faculty profile.
 
About 25,000 teaching and non-teaching personnel are set to be displaced by the full implementation of the K to 12 program next year, according to a report submitted by the government’s education cluster to Congress.
 
Under the bill, an initial amount of P12 billion will be appropriated by Congress in 2016 while the remaining P17 billion will be funded through the national budget for the succeeding four years.
 
Romulo said officials from the Commission on Higher Education and Department of Budget and Management have guaranteed at a recent committee meeting that the amount can be made available if the measure is passed into law. — JDS/KG, GMA News
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