‘Neutral desks’ law signed

MANILA, Philippines — To address the needs of left-handed students, President Duterte has signed a measure that mandates public and private schools to provide neutral desks to students or the Mandatory Provision of Neutral Desks in Educational Institutions Act.

“The state recognizes the vital role of the youth in nation-building and shall promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual and social well-being,” read a portion of Republic Act 11394, signed by the President on Aug. 22 and released yesterday.

The law requires all educational institutions to make use of “neutral” desks suitable for both right and left-handed students in the classroom.

These institutions shall provide desks equivalent to 10 percent of the student population within one year from the effectivity of the law.

Replacing all existing armchairs in public schools with neutral desks would require almost P81 billion in the next five years, the Department of Education (DepEd) said yesterday.

Education Undersecretary for administration Alain del Pascua said the law supports the agency’s five-year plan to replace existing armchairs with a new furniture set comprised of one table and two chairs.

“Since there are 707,600 existing classrooms at the end of 2017, the five-year plan intends to replace 18,199,305 existing armchairs in a span of five years,” said Pascua.

The furniture set that can sit two students costs P4,800, higher than the P900 cost of the old armchair.

Per classroom, the agency said the new design costs P114,000 (23 tables, 46 chairs and one teacher table and chair), compared with the old design at P44,500 (45 armchairs, one teacher table and chair).  

Pascua said despite the high cost it will provide more flexibility that encourages student collaboration.

Since last year, he said DepEd has procured over 2.2 million tables and chairs for 33,017 classrooms.

“This would cost about P16,189,888,000 per year for the next five years, or a total of P80,949,440,000. This is on top of the regular allocation for school furniture for new classrooms to be constructed. If we start this in 2020, we can have all armchairs replaced by 2025,” he added.