North Cotabato school sees drastic drop in attendance after fatal shooting of student
MANILA, Philippines — More than a quarter of the students at a school in North Cotabato have been absent from class after shooting incidents near campus left one schoolmate dead and several others injured.
Vice President Sara Duterte— concurrently education secretary — said that she has learned of the alarming dip in attendance at Pikit National High School (PNHS) after one of its students was shot dead by an unidentified gunman a few steps away from campus on February 14. Two other students were also reportedly injured.
According to a press release, PNHS school principal Abdulkadir Buda told Duterte on Monday that the school’s attendance "dropped to at least 65%" due to the students’ apparent fear for their lives.
Duterte has tasked school officials to allow the students to continue learning remotely through the Alternative Delivery Mode (ADM).
"Our job is to make sure that those who are afraid will continue learning at home. So you should find them and inform them they will (continue studying through) ADM," Duterte told school officials in Filipino.
Two days after the deadly gun attack near campus, another student from the school was injured in a different shooting incident at a nearby barangay.
The school suspended classes for a week following the fatal incidents.
The student council of Pikit National High School condemned the violent incidents "in the strongest possible terms" in a statement posted on Facebook on February 16. "We want peace,” they also said.
Interior Secretary Benjamin Abalos Jr. has said that the Department of the Interior and Local Government will coordinate with the Department of National Defense and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency to investigate the case.
Based on data from the DepEd’s Basic Education Development Plan 2030, the agency’s first long-term roadmap for basic education, around 7,000 schools nationwide from 2014 to 2018 recorded around 27,000 cases of violence, with some schools caught in the crossfire of armed conflict or organized crimes.
"In these situations, learners, personnel, and parents suffer fear or trauma, or simply their own regard for personal safety and security prevents learners from going back to school," the report read.
Police Gen. Rodolfo Azurin, chief of the Philippine National Police, previously floated the suggestion of assigning one police officer in every school to deter crime and prevent cases of school violence.
The proposal to increase the presence of police officers in school was made after several public schools were rocked by violent incidents in January, such as students being fatally stabbed and schools receiving bomb threats.
The Commissionon Human Rights urged DepEd to uphold the "best interests of the child" and consider alternative means of protecting schools as zones of peace.
DepEd in 2021 also released a statement discouraging the presence of armed police inside schools. The agency maintained that schools should be "free from the presence of armed combatants" so students can feel safe.
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