Lack of teachers, classrooms hounding Caloocan

Classes in public elementary schools pushed through yesterday in Caloocan City with both local school officials and worrisome parents still ruing the perennial lack of teachers and classrooms.

Dr. Elizabeth Manalo, Caloocan City schools superintendent, said like all the rest of the country, the city is still facing these problems.

This situation, she said, has pushed her leadership to scrimp on meager resources and maximize on what is on hand.

She added that they have even gone to a point of calling on teachers to respond to the situation "beyond the call of duty." The city reportedly now needs a teaching force of around 700 in high school and 300 elementary teachers to meet the ideal student-teacher ratio.

Manalo said they still manage to find ways, mostly creative and unorthodox, to resolve the lack of teachers. It is common knowledge that teachers have been an "exploited" lot, putting in longer hours than normal, most often without additional compensation.

Manalo revealed that higher authorities have given the city additional slots for 76 teachers in a bid to approximate the standard average ratio of 1/46 per classroom. But still, this number, she said, would not suffice obviously.

Compounding this problem is the fact that the city to date lacks some 500 classrooms to accommodate all elementary and secondary students.

Based on recent studies conducted by the office of Manalo, high schools and elementary schools in the city has a ratio average of 1:56 per classroom to a high of 1:65 per classroom.

It was also gathered that schools (both elementary and secondary) have to resort to three sets of schedules (three shifts) especially in Bagong Silang and Camarin, two of the most populous barangays in the city, with the former having a population of over half a million.

Manalo disclosed that high school enrollees for school year 2003-04 (75, 371) went up by 5,011 compared to the 70,360 who enrolled for the year 2002-03. In the elementary, enrolled pupils totaled 141,542 in 2003-04 compared to 139,753 for 2002-03, a slight difference of 1,789. Most of the additional enrollees in the higher grades allegedly came from pupils previously enrolled in private schools, sources said.

There are 26 secondary schools and 57 elementary schools in Caloocan City. Last school year, the city turned out 26,551 graduates in high school and 13,453 in the elementary.

Manalo said although the first day of classes were suspended last Monday due to bad weather, the opening of classes went on smoothly yesterday.