EDITORIAL — Another chance to solve the usual problems

Yesterday saw the opening of classes and the start of school for over 23 million students all over the country, 1.8 million of them in Central Visayas.

This is usually a milestone for first-time students. There is nothing like starting on a new stage in life, making new friends, having new experiences, and slowly finding out about yourself.

It is also a milestone for first-time parents. There is nothing like watching your child take those first steps on the path that will lead them to becoming an adult.

But like any school opening, it faced challenges. And we aren’t talking about heavy traffic congestion, students who can’t find their classrooms, and pupils who end up in tears after losing sight of their parents and being surrounded by so many total strangers; we are talking about the perennial problems.

All over the country, especially in the capital, there were the usual problems of some public schools having too many students. Some had to refer students who could no longer be accommodated to other public schools.

Along with this issue comes the lack of classroom and facilities, not to mention the teacher-to-student ratio which is not ideal; we just have too many students for one teacher to handle.

As the school year chugs along, we may also be faced with other challenges like students becoming less and less interested in their lessons, teachers becoming more distracted with other duties, of subjects and lessons becoming obsolete, and even the disruption of classes because of natural calamities.

We would like to think that because school opens every year we are used to dealing with these problems by now. However, this isn’t the case. It’s like every year we face the same issues, problems, and deficiencies and always seem unable to resolve them.

However, the start of every year school year also comes with the chance to solve these problems once and for all. Considering factors like the worsening global warming, economic and financial issues, distractions, and even politics, we wish our teachers and students a good learning year. May this one be the one where our educational system goes back on track.