DepEd okays tuition hike of 38 schools in east Visayas

TACLOBAN CITY, June 6 -- The Department of Education (DepEd) has approved the tuition hike sought by 38 private schools in Eastern Visayas this academic year.

The number is more than 10 percent of the 301 non-government schools in the region.

DepEd Eastern Visayas regional public affairs unit head Jasmin Calzita on Wednesday said the regional office approved the tuition fee adjustment after private schools met all the requirements set by the Education department.

The number of approved application has increased this week from only 20 schools last month.

By DepEd rules and regulations, 70 percent of the approved increase should go to salaries of teachers, 20 percent for the improvement of facilities, and the rest to form part of their retained earnings.

One of the requirements is financial statement indicating the school’s financial status certified by a public accountant, as well as a copy of the last tax return filed at the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

“Consultations with the parents and students must also be conducted by the schools. We make sure that at least 75 percent of parents signed the tuition fee increase proposal,” Calzita told the Philippine News Agency (PNA). 

These schools are St. Joseph High School of Dagami, Inc., Assumption Academy, Inc., Holy Child Parish School of Isabel, Inc., Notre Dame of Jaro, Inc., Holy Cross College of Carigara, Villaba Vocational High School, St. Vincent Ferrer Academy, Colegio de San Francisco Javier, Inc., St. Mary’s Academy of Palo, Inc., Notre Dame of Abuyog, Inc., Immaculate Concepcion Academy of Burauen, Inc., MLG College of Learning, Inc., and Grelina Osmeña Christian College in Leyte province.

Sacred Heart School, Tacloban United Christian School, Inc., and St. Therese Education Foundation of Tacloban, Inc. in Tacloban City; Ormoc Immaculate Concepcion School Foundation, Inc., Ormoc Sacred Heart Child Development Center, The San Lorenzo-Immaculate Concepcion Parochial School Ormoc, Inc. in Ormoc City.

Catarman Chamber Elementary School Foundation, Inc., St. Michael Academy, Pearl Island Academy Foundation, Inc., St. Joseph Academy in Northern Samar; St. Michael’s High School, MSH Sisters Academy of Basey, Inc., La Milagrosa Academy, Samar Colleges, Inc. in Samar.

St. Mary’s Academy of Guiuan, Inc., Holy Cross Academy of Oras, Inc., Our Lady of Fatima Academy, Inc., and St. Mary’s College of Borongan in Eastern Samar; Holy Rosary Academy of Hinunangan, Hinundayan Catholic Institute, Inc., Saint Ignatius Loyola Academy, Inc., Saint Joseph College of Maasin, MACI-Jose K. Demetrio Learning Foundation, Inc., Celestino Ablas Sr. Academy Foundations, Inc., and Sto. Niño Academy in Southern Leyte.

The DepEd is expecting that more learners will transfer to public schools because of the rising cost of private school education.

“When it comes to learning process, the quality of education is improving in public schools. This is a welcome development for DepEd, but we don’t disregard our partnership with private schools especially in senior high school since they have complete facilities,” Calzita said.

Harold Naputo, information officer of Rizal Central School in Tacloban, believes that the surge in Grade 1 enrollment could be the result of the tuition hikes.

From 250 Grade 1 pupils in the last school year, the number increased to 298 as of Wednesday.

“Some pupils spend their kindergarten in private schools and move to public school when they reach Grade 1. As a public school, we cannot refuse enrollees even if some rooms are quite crowded,” Naputo added.

On Monday, 1.24 million learners trooped to over 4,400 schools in the region, signaling the start of a new academic year. (SQM/PNA)

DepEd hiring over 4k teachers for Eastern Visayas

TACLOBAN CITY, June 5  -- At least 4,124 new teachers are being hired by the Department of Education (DepEd) this year to address the inadequate number of teaching personnel in public schools across Eastern Visayas region.

DepEd regional office public affairs unit chief Jazmin Calzita said the number of approved teaching positions is based on the teacher needs submitted by DepEd field offices based in six provinces and seven cities.

“The number of new positions is on top of teaching items vacated by personnel who retired in the last school year. The target is to complete the hiring process within the year,” Calzita said.

This year’s hiring will be for teaching positions in elementary and junior high school. Since 2016, the education department has been hiring thousands of teachers for senior high school (SHS).

Most of newly-hired teachers have specialization on Science and Mathematics, as part of the education department’s implementation of the K to 12 education reform program.

The K to 12 program covers Kindergarten and 12 years of basic education to provide sufficient time for mastery of concepts and skills, develop lifelong learners, and prepare graduates for tertiary education, middle-level skills development, employment, and entrepreneurship.

Of the 4,124 new teachers, 1,780 will be for kindergarten and elementary classes, 2,334 for junior high school, and only 10 for SHS.

Broken down to provinces, Leyte has the highest number of teaching positions at 1,291, followed by Northern Samar (657), Samar (602), Eastern Samar (311), Southern Leyte (269), and Biliran (89).

The remaining items are intended for the cities of Ormoc (237), Tacloban (228), Calbayog (170), Baybay (126), Catbalogan (59), Maasin (47), and Borongan (38).

Earlier, the Department of Budget and Management has approved the creation of more than 75,000 new teaching positions nationwide for the new academic year.

The funding requirements to cover the salaries and other forms of compensation for the new positions will be charged against the appropriations for the DepEd. (SQM/PNA)

DPWH Eastern Visayas completes 753 new school buildings

TACLOBAN CITY, June 5  -- The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has constructed 753 out of 1,302 school buildings in Eastern Visayas funded under the 2016 and 2017 Basic Education Facilities Fund (BEFF) of the Department of Education (DepEd).

The construction of at least 523 school buildings are ongoing while 26 projects have not yet begun as of last month, based on the report released by the DPWH 8 (Eastern Visayas) on Tuesday.

DPWH-8 Director Edgar Tabacon said some projects have been delayed due to several issues, such as poor accessibility of school sites, soil test failure, or the fund allocation is lower than the actual need.

“We did a lot of review because for some projects, the cost estimate is way below the actual requirement. It entails more budget to build classrooms in remote villages and island towns, but the allocation under BEFF is the same for all sites,” Tabacon told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

The two-year school building projects in six provinces of the region obtained a combined budget of PHP9.39 billion.

“New school building projects are multi-storey structures, which require more stable soil. The biggest challenge is finding the most suitable site for high-rise school buildings,” he added.

In a statement issued earlier, the education department said delays were encountered early on as DepEd and DPWH “fastidiously” conducted its joint validation of school sites.

“The unavailability of funds for soil testing and the need to review existing classroom designs were also issues at the onset, as these factors necessitated the computation of new rates and costing for construction,” the DepEd said.

The design of the new school buildings has been upgraded to withstand strong winds and earthquakes, Tabacon added.

The structural component of the buildings, such as the footing, columns, and beams, have been expanded for safer and more conducive learning for students.

Of the 1,302 school building projects, 103 are in Biliran province, 335 in Eastern Samar, 463 in Leyte, 90 in Northern Samar, 129 in Samar, 132 in Southern Leyte, and 50 in Tacloban City.

DepEd Eastern Visayas regional information officer Jazmin Calzita expressed hope that the school building projects would be completed soon to accommodate more senior high school learners (SHS).

“The problem of classroom shortage is more serious among SHS enrollees and our goal is to address this through BEFF in the next five years,” Calzita said, adding that a single classroom is sometimes occupied by 90 SHS learners, way beyond the ideal ratio of one classroom for every 40 learners.

Eastern Visayas has 1.24 million enrolled learners both in public and private elementary and secondary schools. The region has 40,684 classrooms managed by 47,334 teachers and 7,485 DepEd non-teaching personnel. (SQM/PNA)

Makeshift classrooms greet Tacloban relocation learners

TACLOBAN CITY, May 4 -- Grade 6 learner Mary Joy Metila, 12, has to endure heat inside a makeshift classroom on her first day of school in a new campus away from their old home.

The girl, who dreamed of becoming a physician someday, shares a room with 30 other sweat-soaked children, whose families just moved to Villa Sofia housing project intended for super typhoon “Yolanda” survivors settled in the city’s coastal communities badly hit by the 2013 disaster.

This school year, Mary Joy’s parents decided to transfer her to Villa Sofia Elementary School in rural Tagpuro village from San Fernando Elementary School located along the city’s major thoroughfare.

“It’s hot here and the environment is completely different, but it’s alright since it is very inconvenient to wake up early and take a long jeepney ride to my old school,” the girl shared.

Villa Sofia Elementary School is the newest campus in the typhoon-hit city. Since last month, workers rushed to build eight temporary learning spaces (TLS) for 187 children.

Mary Joy is just one of the estimated 3,500 children who attended classes in 88 TLS built near six resettlement sites in the northern part of the city.

School principal Edever Zanoria said they are working to improve the ventilation of makeshift rooms made up of coconut lumber, plywood, and corrugated iron sheets.

Due to shortage of walling materials, the room is partly exposed to sunlight early morning and late in the afternoon. The floor, which was not concreted, also raises concern that it might become muddy during rainy days.

“There’s a lot of improvements here in the past two weeks. We have been getting donations from our stakeholders for to be able to install electric fans and ceilings since,” Zanoria said.

Department of Education Tacloban division chief Thelma Quitalig hopes that many learners will transfer to permanent classrooms before the year ends.

As of this week, only two projects are ongoing with a combined cost of PHP118.37 million. These are three-storey buildings at the Ridge View Park Integrated School in Cabalawan village.

“It will mainly depend on the speed of construction by the Department of Public Works and Highways. We understand that it is very challenging to find sites suitable for multi-storey school buildings,” Quitalig said.

Aside from Villa Sofia and Ridge View, the education department has been maintaining makeshift rooms for North Hill Arbour, Greendale Residences, and New Hope Village housing projects.

Quitalig hopes that their main office will download the budget for new building and find new sites for buildings originally intended in some areas, which failed the soil stability test for three-storey school buildings.

The city needs 656 new classrooms for new campuses and additional 40 rooms for existing schools.

The government aims to move more than 14,000 typhoon-hit families to northern relocation sites. 

About 10,000 families have been transferred to their new homes, away from threats of storm surges. (SQM/PNA)

Police unveils Christ’s image for green advocacy

PALO, Leyte, June 4 – The Philippine National Police (PNP) regional office here has erected the “Environmental Jesus”, an image of the crucified Christ made up of materials confiscated in police operations, scraps and typhoon debris.

Outgoing PNP Region 8 Director Chief Supt. Gilberto Cruz led the unveiling of the image on Monday as part of the police regional office's advocacy to abide environment laws

“I noticed that most people here in the region are not really aware of how to take care of the environment. I tried to advocate something with the advice of the PNP chaplain to create awareness that every day, humans are destroying the environment and we need to stop it,” Cruz said.

Included in the materials used to create the image of Jesus Christ are six rifles that represent the six provinces in Eastern Visayas, two chainsaw resembling the two commitments of the police regional office to uphold humanity and despise man-made destruction.

There are also five mufflers representing five environmental problems in the country - pollution, global warming, overpopulation, natural resources depletion, and waste disposal.

Other confiscated materials used are 16mm mortar and rifle grenade that were used as nails of the Environmental Christ; 365 confiscated pistols were used to form the body of Jesus Christ, while I-Beam and magazine are formed into a cross.

Axes, saw mill blades, bolo, water tank, chain, dynamite, barbed wire, engine parts, fishing troll, fine fish nets and clock are also used by the sculptor to create the image.

The PNP also installed solar-powered lights to illuminate the area at night.

The image was erected at the top of the mountain inside the police regional office in Camp Kangleon, Palo and was created by metal sculptor Lucky Salayog, a native of Aurora, Isabela.

Salayog said that it took him two months to create the face of the crucified Christ while the body took him two weeks to complete.

“I made the face in my shop in Isabela, but I made the body here because the materials were here. I made the whole sculpture in three months,” Salayog said.

Salayog added that it did not take long for him to create the sculptor because the idea of environmental protection is close to his heart.

“Metal is my comfort zone in creating art because it has unique character and at the same time use your imagination to create an artwork,” Salayog said.

The Environmental Jesus is an innovative holistic representation of the region’s people who are always facing climate and environment challenges due to its geographical setting, Cruz said.

It also embodies the commitment of the PNP to address criminality and disaster without compromising the environment.

The PNP will open the Environmental Jesus statue to the public especially on Holy Week. Before reaching the statue on the top of the mountain, a station of the cross was erected along the way.

On Monday, Cruz formally left Eastern Visayas after serving as PNP regional director for nine months. He will be replaced by Chief Supt. Mariel Magaway, the current chief of the Camp Crame-based PNP intelligence command.

Cruz, who received his relief order on June 1, will be assigned as the deputy chief of the Directorate for Integrated Police Operations-Eastern Mindanao but based in Camp Crame, Quezon City.

The change of command is part of a major revamp in the PNP initiated by Director General Oscar Albayalde. (RTA/PNA)