ILOILO City – Western Visayas schools need over 13,000 classrooms.
Despite continued efforts to build or repair classrooms, the backlog reached 13,297 as of March this year, according to Dr. Ramir B. Uytico, Department of Education (DepEd) regional director.
“Pagsinabi nating backlog…wala talagang katapusan ang pag-provide ng mga classrooms. Kahit elementary pa ako ‘yon na ang problema, hanggang ngayon,” said Uytico.
Here is the breakdown of the number of classrooms needed per schools division office (SDOs): Aklan (472), Antique (728), Bacolod City (334), Cadiz City (80), Capiz (890), Escalante City (122), Iloilo (373), Kabankalan City (283), La Carlota City (2), Negros Occidental (7,837), Passi City (88), Roxas City (311), Sagay City (1,048), San Carlos City (78), Silay City (84), Sipalay City (434), and Victorias City (115).
According to Uytico, the devolution of power to local government units (LGUs) endows them with a significant role in addressing the matter.
“Because the government does not have enough funds for the construction of buildings, gobyerno nagkaroon ng devolution plan,” said the DepEd Region 6 director.
Mitigating effects on learners
According to Hernani Escullar Jr., information officer of DepEd-6, the regional office and SDOs are looking for ways to ensure that the learners’ studies are not affected.
The DepEd regional office constantly coordinates with the central office to follow up on solutions to the classroom backlog.
The SDOs are also looking for measures, such as coordinating with LGUs or employing modified or shifting class schedules.
“Iban may shifting of classes, meaning lain ang learners sa aga and lain ang sa hapon agud sini nga makapadayun ang pagtuon sang mga kabataan sa in-person nga mode of delivery,” said Escullar.
Schools also have the authority to create techniques, innovations or ways that they could continuously educate learners despite the problem, added Escullar.
Western Visayas has 5,068 registered schools: 4,045 public schools, 1,010 private schools, and 13 local universities and colleges (LUCs) and state universities and colleges (SUCs).
For the 2022-2023 school calendar, there were 2,087,486 enrolled learners in the region, of which 1,886,720 are in public schools; 197,171 are in private schools; and 3,595 are in SUCs and LUCs./PN
