As Brigada Eskwela ends: Temporary ‘classrooms’ built for kids of relocated families

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — With the conclusion of the five-day Brigada Eskwela this week, the Department of Education-8 announced that the construction of more temporary learning spaces (TLS) are now underway in the northern barangays of Tacloban for families displaced during the onslaught of Yolanda in November 2013.

A DepEd city division official said: “We need to build schools there because more than a thousand families from the ‘no build zone’ coastal barangays of San Jose, Magallanes and Anibong (districts) in the city had transferred residence to the northern barangays. It would be very inconvenient for our students to be coming to the downtown area just to attend their classes.”

He said four schools must be constructed in the northern barangay for now but considering the dearth in funds,  the DepEd is building TLS in cooperation with the Tacloban City government at these relocation sites.

Ivannovich  Agote, DepEd-Tacloban disaster risk reduction and management coordinator, added that about 100 TLS are targeted to be operational before the start of classes this June and 115 TLS more are projected to be completed construction within the school year 2017-2018.

This academic year, DepEd will need about 215 provisional classrooms for 8,235 learners now relocated in the northern barangays. Last year, the Education agency constructed TLS but these accommodated only about 1,440 new enrollees.

DepEd will need P768.93 million as capital outlay for the construction of 558 permanent classrooms for over 25,000 children of relocated families.

Meanwhile, DepEd-8 Regional Director Ramir Barberan Uytico warned teachers and school administrators that there should be no more cleaning of classrooms during the opening of classes on June 5. This activity should have been completely done during the Brigada Eskwela week, from May 15 through 20.

“I emphasized in my meeting with the schools superintendents that there will be no more cleaning of classrooms on June 5, and that all teachers should be prepared with their lesson plans on the first week,” Uytico said, adding that after the Brigada, it is expected that all classrooms are ready for classes in June.

The Tacloban City government, on the other hand, donated—from its schools education fund (SEF)—P50,000 to each of the city’s public schools regardless of whether a particular school principal was able to liquidate the amount received in the past years.

Nelson Balagusa, president of the Tacloban City Federation of Parents-Teachers Association and sits as a member of the Tacloban City School Board, confirmed that there are public schools that failed to liquidate the amount donated by the city government last year.