Enrollment still up in Tacloban coastal schools despite relocation

TACLOBAN CITY, June 14-- A school badly hit by super typhoon Yolanda nearly four years ago still enjoys high enrollment rate despite massive relocation of thousands of families to northern relocation sites. 

As of Tuesday, the Fisherman’s Village Elementary School in the city’s San Jose district has 190 enrolled Grade 1 to Grade 6 pupils. The figure is lower than the 257 enrolled last year, but higher than the projected 87 learners this academic year.

The school, just a stone's throw away from the shore, is one of the learning facilities which heavily suffered the brunt of the monster typhoon, killing at least 65 of its learners. 

The campus, located in a low-lying community, is very close to the Daniel Z. Romualdez Airport, the region’s busiest.

School principal Elenita Montablan wondered why children return to their old school although several families in the Fisherman’s village had been moved last summer to resettlement sites, approximately 26 kilometers away from the campus.

“We are very far from their new homes, but some children get up early, take an early morning ride because they want to complete their elementary education here,” said Montablan, who leads a team of six teachers.

Adonis Rona, 8, doesn’t mind waking up 4:00 a.m. just to attend class at Fisherman’s village. His mother, who works as a pharmacist at the city’s downtown, takes him to school early morning and picks him up after classes.

“There are schools near our new home, but it’s only makeshift and the road leading there is muddy. I also like attending classes here because most of my friends are enrolled here,” said Rona, a Grade 3 pupil, whose dream is to become a policeman someday.

Rona is just one of the hundreds of learners in this typhoon-hit city, who prefer to attend classes in campuses near their old homes this school year.

Department of Education Tacloban office information officer Nilo Eder said on Wednesday that there was no significant reduction of enrollment in schools near no-build zones. 

The government prohibits building of houses in no-build zones or the area within 40 kilometers from the shoreline.

In nearby San Jose Elementary School, this year’s population is 2,498, just lower than 2,994 in the previous academic year.

The full implementation of senior high school program has slightly raised the enrollment of San Jose National High School from 2,126 last year to 2,280 as of Tuesday.

“Many of them are children of fishermen who still work in the city’s coastal areas during daytime,” Eder said.

The DepEd field office here is seeking PHP1 billion budget to build permanent classrooms near resettlement sites.

Ivannovich Agote, DepEd Tacloban disaster risk reduction and management coordinator, said the city needs 656 new classrooms for new campuses and additional 40 rooms for existing accommodating schools nearby. 

“Parents are hesitant to enroll their children in the northern villages because of lack of permanent classrooms,” Agote added.

Earlier, the DepEd main office asked its city division office here to revalidate the proposal taking into account the actual enrollment in schools near housing sites, some 15 kilometers away from the city’s commercial district.

The education department also asked the Department of Public Works and Highways to immediately conduct soil test to find out if proposed sites were suitable for multi-storey buildings.

As a short-term solution to education needs in the northern part of the city, DepEd has built 87 TLS (temporary learning spaces) through PHP5.22 million outlay from the central office.

The government aims to move more than 14,000 typhoon-hit families to northern relocation sites. As of this week, about 8,000 families have been transferred to their new homes, away from threats of storm surges.(Sarwell Q. Meniano & Roel T. Amazona)