Solon hits dearth of classrooms, teachers

Sen. Ralph Recto warned yesterday that the shortage in teachers and classrooms in public schools nationwide would surely worsen next year.

Quoting figures from the Department of Education (DepEd), Recto said that by next year, public schools would be lacking 49,212 teachers and 44,716 classrooms.

"If there is an Asian Games of education neglect, we are definitely in the medal contention," he said in a statement. "Human capital development will take a sabbatical next year, the collateral damage of low tax collection and big budget deficit."

Recto said the government has no plan to hire a single teacher next year, despite figures showing that public schools need more teachers.

"We need five Araneta Coliseums-full of teachers but they claim that we don’t have money to recruit a single soul," he said.

Recto said the 15,000 teachers to be recruited this year would not be enough to fill up the backlog of past years because of the expected influx of 536,000 new students next school year.

"The expected rise of enrollment in the 36,234 public elementary schools and in the 4,422 public high schools from 16.799 million children this year to 17.335 million children next year will also take its toll on classrooms," he said.

"Although there will be 375,952 classrooms by end of the year, they are 44,716 short of the 420,668 classrooms DepEd said it would need in time for school opening in June 2003."

Recto said the P2 billion for new classrooms in next year’s proposed national budget would not be enough to "plug the gaping hole" in the infrastructure of public schools.

"To wipe out the deficit in mentors and rooms, the government must cough up P6 billion for the initial year’s salary of 49,212 teachers based on a P120,000 per annum gross pay of an entry-level teacher," he said.

Recto said the DepEd’s P375,000 budget for a new classroom is steep as it would sum up to around P16.8 billion for 44,716 classrooms.

"While the amounts loom as gargantuan, we should remember that the P6 billion needed to erase the teacher’s shortage is what we will spend in five and half days next year for debt service," he said. – Sammy Santos