Bicol public schools need 1,700 teachers

23 May 2006

LEGAZPI CITY—OFFICIALS OF the Department of Education in Bicol said each classroom in the region could accommodate as many as 70 to 80 students to cope with the expected increase in enrollment when classes are expected to open June and the teaching force is short of 1,700 in the region.

“It is a perennial problem. It will result in bigger classes to maximize the manpower we have,” said Valeriano Garcia Jr., DepEd regional planning unit chief.

Garcia pointed out that the shortage of teachers was mainly due to the scarcity of government funds to afford the hiring of more educators to address the increasing demand of students in the region.

“We lack classrooms. We lack books. We lack teachers. But the root of all these is the fact that our government is poor so we don’t have a choice but to make our resources fit,” Garcia said.

Enrollment is projected to increase by 2 to 3 percent this coming school year, both in the elementary and secondary levels, Celedonio Layon Jr., DepEd Bicol director, said in an interview with a local newspaper.

The actual enrollment figures in school year 2005-06 were 890,472 in the elementary level and 334,813 in high school, or a total of about 1.2 million enrollees in the different public schools in Bicol.

Last school year, the region lacked only 769 teachers, which was lower by almost half this year.
Layon said the DepEd’s solution to the problem of lack of teachers was to make full use of every classroom to fit in 70 to 80 students.

“This is the way to accommodate all the impoverished students in public schools even if we lack classrooms and teachers,” he added.

DepEd regional officials met on May 16 to discuss preparations for the opening of classes.

Also discussed in the meeting, the officials said, was the enforcement of a DepEd memorandum that strictly prohibited the non-acceptance of poor students during enrollment who cannot afford to pay school contributions and miscellaneous fees immediately.

Every year, students face the problem of increasing costs of education as schools increase tuition every time classes open.

In Central Luzon, at least 36 private colleges and universities are raising tuition and other fees by 3 to 20 percent for school year 2006-07, a report from the regional Commission on Higher
Education on Tuesday showed.

Most of the approved increases went beyond the 7.6-percent national inflation rate set by the
National Economic and Development Authority this year.

The report said 21 other schools were seeking an increase of 3 to 15 percent. The CHEd has disapproved only one application due to the late submission of requirements. Ephraim Aguilar, PDI Southern Luzon Bureau with a report from Tonette Orejas, PDI Central Luzon Desk