Makeshift classrooms greet 7,000 pupils in Tacloban

TACLOBAN CITY, June 5 -- More than 7,000 schoolchildren started the new school year on Monday in makeshift classrooms near the city’s relocation sites meant for families badly hit by a typhoon in 2013.

Grade 6 learner Beverly Shane Albesa, 10, has to endure heat inside a temporary learning space at the Guadalupe Heights Integrated School in San Isidro village. The girl shares a room with 40 other sweat-soaked children.

“It’s inconvenient but I have to pursue my studies because I want to be a flight attendant someday,” said Beverly, accompanied by his father and two younger siblings in their kindergarten age.

She is a transferee from Abuyog, Leyte where her mother works as a public school teacher. Before super typhoon Yolanda struck in 2013, she was enrolled at San Jose Central School, a campus near the city’s airport flattened by the typhoon’s killer winds and storm surge.

Beverly is just one of the estimated 7,320 children greeted on Monday by makeshift rooms made up of coconut lumber, plywood, and corrugated iron sheets. The new schools are about 15 kilometers away from their old homes.

The Department of Education (DepEd) has been building 215 temporary learning spaces (TLS) for thousands of learners from relocated families since last year.

The budget for makeshift rooms is PHP16.47 million. The target is to complete all TLS within the early part of this school year.

Due to shortage of walling materials, the room is partly exposed to sunlight early morning and late in the afternoon. The soil floor also raises concern that it might become muddy pools during rainy days.

"There are times that I have to ask children to transfer their seats to avoid direct heat of sunlight," said teacher Nemfa Engracial, 38, who was drenched in sweat even before the classes started.

Engracial, who used to meet learners in village halls and under trees as alternative learning system instructor, shared that this is the most challenging classes she has ever handled in her two-year teaching career.

School officials had to ask some parents to bring chairs for their children since there is still no budget available for school furniture, admitted DEpEd Tacloban education program supervisor Evelyn Malubay.

“We gathered excess furniture from other schools for use in resettlement sites pending the allocation of funds, but it’s not enough to answer all needs. We also pulled out teachers from different schools to the northern campuses and hire new ones to ensure that learning of children will continue in their new homes,” Malubay said.

Despite these concerns, school principal Larry Peñalosa is optimistic that all teachers and children will be able to complete the academic year.

“I talked to parents especially those getting government assistance conditional cash transfer to help us carry out education program. This week, some parents committed to bring blankets, old umbrellas, and tarpaulins to shield their children from sunlight,” Peñalosa told PNA.

Aside from Guadalupe Heights Integrated School, the education department also opened three other new campuses on Monday all dotted with makeshift rooms for North Hill Arbour, Greendale Residences, and New Hope Village.

These new campuses are meant for families transferred from the city’s danger zones to higher grounds between late 2016 to this year’s summer.

When President Rodrigo Duterte visited this city on Nov. 8, 2016 and Jan. 25, 2017, he asked the National Housing Authority (NHA) to speed up post-Yolanda housing projects.

As of third week of May, about 8,628 families have been transferred to 14 government housing sites, according to NHA.

At least 52,679 children trooped to 42 elementary schools and 24 secondary schools in this city on Monday, the regional capital of Eastern Visayas region. (Sarwell Q. Meniano/PNA)