DECS chief bans text messaging inside classrooms

The good news is that Education Secretary Andrew Gonzalez has declared that schools cannot ban students from bringing their cellphones to campus.

The catch, however, is that cellphones with their omnipresent text messaging are not allowed to be used inside classrooms.

The education secretary said on President Estrada's radio program yesterday that it was the constitutional right of anyone, including students, to have and carry with them their cellphones to school.

"However, cellphones should not be used inside the classrooms because they might use the text (messaging) to cheat during tests or while the teacher is conducting the class. Now that's forbidden," Gonzalez said.

"Outside the class, we cannot do anything because it is the right of every student to use their text," he admitted, adding that he has nothing against the latest Filipino craze.

"I think it is a novel thing. I believe when it (text messaging) spreads out (and) people are used to it, they won't use it in extreme and they will get over it later on," he said.

National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) chief Joseph Santiago disclosed yesterday that the Philippines was emerging as the "text capital" of the world, with the volume of daily messages at 28 million compared to Europe's 20 million daily.

Meanwhile, Gonzalez said pubic schools will be forced to conduct two shifts when school opens next week to make up for the shortage of classrooms aggravated by their being used as evacuation centers especially in Central Mindanao.

He also said that due to the ongoing conflict in Basilan, Sulu and other crisis areas in the South, public school teachers have asked that they be reassigned elsewhere.

Gonzalez said the Department of Education has gotten "special permission" from Civil Service Commission chairperson Cora Alma de Leon to allow them to hire fresh graduates in conflict areas in Mindanao to address the shortage, even if the new teachers have not taken their CSC licensure tests.

He conceded that while this may not ensure quality education, this was a contingency measure to deal with the situation in the south, where some schools are even used as military barracks.

"What we will do is get these teachers and give them a special training on Saturdays and also next summer," he said.