Public schools reveal acute classroom shortage

A day after President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo blew her top and scolded the education chief for reporting a higher than what she expected shortage in classrooms, GMA-7’s newscast “24 Oras" conducted an ocular inspection of two Quezon City public schools and found students would be packed “like sardines" when classes resume. Department of Education officer-in-charge Fe Hidalgo, during her presentation on preparations for the school opening in June, said that the country still lacked 6,832 classrooms based on a student-classroom ratio of 45:1 and a single shift per day. But Arroyo interrupted Hidalgo's presentation at Tuesday's Cabinet meeting and insisted that the shortage was only more than 1,000 classrooms in 2004 based on a 100:1 student-classroom ratio on a double shift. Hidaldo was compelled to discontinue her presentation and a visibly irked Mrs. Arroyo asked media covering the meeting ushered out. Teachers in Commonwealth National High School (CNHS) in Batasan Hills in Quezon City disagreed with Mrs. Arroyo’s computation. With more than 10,000 enrollees and just 53 classrooms, the President’s preferred ratio of 1:50 was impossible to attain. Instead, packed like sardines, there are 70 students in each of two shifts – in a classroom designed for 25 students. The classroom packed 70 chairs with no spaces between and barely legroom for students. GMA-7 reporter Kara David tried to go through to the end of the classroom but was able to do so only by walking "over" the chairs. In Commonwealth Elementary School (CES) in Quezon City, which was recorded in Guinness Book as the world’s most heavily populated primary, a teacher supervised more than 75 students in each of two shifts of class or 1:75 ratio. The CES has 12,755 students, with only 85 classrooms. Even the hallway, library and a comfort room were converted into classrooms. “The children can’t even read books because they don’t have the place to do so,’ a teachers said. Teachers from both school urged government officials to solve the long time problem of class room shortage instead of making a big fuss about the ratio. “Matagal ng may shortage but the problem is, we project na walang shortage, so niloloko na lang natin ang sarili natin," a teacher from CNHS said. (There has long been a classroom shortage. The problem is when we project there’s no shortage, we’re only kidding ourselves.)-GMANews.TV