Public school teachers see bleak school year due to lack of resources

MANILA, Philippines – When classes open on June 15, the burden of coping with congested classrooms and the perennial lack of textbooks, chairs and other school equipment will once again fall on public school teachers, the Teachers Dignity Coalition (TDC) said.

TDC said despite the readiness projected by the Department of Education (DepEd) to accommodate over 21 million students in pre-school, elementary and high school this academic year, teachers see a bleak future for the school year ahead.

“It’s been like that every year. They (DepEd) will pronounce their 100 percent readiness but it’s the teachers who will have to deal with all the myriad problems brought by their inability to address these resource shortages,” said TDC national chairman Benjamin Basas in an interview at the government-sponsored 2010 Education Congress held at the Manila Hotel yesterday. Basas said the DepEd projects a classroom to student ratio of 1:45, but teachers project a ratio of 1:60.

”There will be classrooms with as many as 75 students,” he said.“The situation is really different on the ground, compared to DepEd statistics.”

During the education Congress, President Arroyo received citations from various stakeholders in the education sector for providing scholarships, and for reforming the educational curriculum to meet the requirements of trade and industry.

The citations came from the National Federation of Higher Educational Institutions, the Philippine Association of State Universities and Colleges, and the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

During the program, beneficiaries of President Arroyo’s initiatives in the education sector paid tribute to the president. Another teachers’ group, the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT), however, said the Arroyo administration’s efforts to address the shortages have been inadequate. “It’s true that the Arroyo government has been hiring 10,000 teachers and constructing 3,000 or so classrooms annually.

However, these efforts are not enough compared to the sheer size of our enrollment,” said ACT national chairman Antonio Tinio.

“As a result, public school education in the Arroyo years is characterized by oversized classes with 60 or more students, contributing to a further decline in the quality of education.”

He said the Arroyo administration owes the education sector P91.54 billion in resources to be fully functional.

Tinio said that for the coming school year, there is a shortage of 54,060 teachers, 4,538 principals, 6,473 head teachers; 61,343 classrooms, 816,291 chairs, and 113,051 water and sanitation facilities.

He said the DepEd will need P400 million more to address the textbook shortage.

“All in all, the DepEd needs an additional P91.54 billion over and above its current budget to address all of these resource gaps,” Tinio said.

He blamed the decline in the country’s education system on the government’s budget policy to prioritize debt servicing and reducing real spending on education. He urged president-elect Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to eliminate the scarcity by passing a supplemental budget.

“It can’t be business as usual. We need a government that will provide adequate teachers, classrooms, and textbooks to our children. The Aquino government must turn its back on the policy of budget cuts and debt servicing above all,” Tinio said. “Otherwise, we won’t be able to break out of this education crisis.”Children rights group Akap Bata likewise challenged Aquino to address the problems of the educational system, like the meager state subsidy on education, high cost of education, and poor working condition of teachers.“We hope that president-elect Aquino will break this culture of neglect to the sector of education within his term in office,” Akap Bata secretary-general Arlene Brosas said. -–Rainier Allan Ronda (The Philippine Star) with Helen Flores, Marvin Sy