By BETTINA CATLI AND KATHRINA MANUEL
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — June 1 marked the start of the school calendar in public schools in the Philippines. It was also a day of protest for critics of the government’s K to 12 program who gathered in Mendiola to protest its implementation.
Bulatlat.com asked people at Mendiola on how their first day of school went.
Louie Zabala, president, Manila Public School Teachers Association (MPSTA)
In our school, F.G. Calderon High school …the ventilation of the classrooms is not in good condition. In fact, there are classrooms that have no electric fans, and particularly, in my room there is only one wall fan that caters to more than 45 students.
We have gone to the Annex School in Tondo (Manila) in Isla Puting Bato, and the school has no electricity for the past 10 years, so could you imagine the situation of the children and the teachers. Yet the government said that we are “101 percent ready for K to 12.” But here it is, schools in the premiere city have no electricity, how much more in the interior villages?
Leversia Rivera, 38, English teacher at the Manila Science High School and MPSTA secretary
We are known as a science high school, but our facilities are not enough. Our private partners, the parents, through the PTA, and the alumni are the ones who helped fund our facilities since the national and local governments did not support us as a science high school.
Jack Barro, Araling Panlipunan (AP) teacher in Santolan High School
We, the teachers, have the copies of the modules, but the students don’t. We also face the problem of the class size, which ranges from 55 to 60 students per room. And there is also a problem in ventilation because the electric fans are no longer working.
Dolly Brillantes, mother of a grade 10 student in Manila Science High school
It was different this morning, as parents gathered to complain, because we saw something wrong with this K to 12. Manila Science is known to be advanced, with its special science curriculum, but because of K to 12, the curriculum of Manila Science was stretched, making it a regular high school.
Roderick Dorol, grade 8 teacher in F.G Calderon Integrated School
Our school is still dirty because teachers and students did not go to the Brigada Eskwela, so now the teachers are still cleaning up. Also, there is a lack of classrooms, lack of teachers and there are many students and our class size is 50 to 65.
Mel Castor, teacher at F.G. Calderon Integrated School
It is already June 1, I have the modules and teacher’s guide, but the students don’t because the modules have not yet been delivered. Another problem: in our Grade 10 training in Sta. Isabel, the lecture was in the form of video. My laptop is broken now, and I have to think of strategies on how to give the lectures to the students.
Yolanda Zabala, 38, mother of Grade 7 and 9 students of Torres High School in Tondo, Manila
In my children’s school, especially in the Grade seven, there are 36 sections, with 45 to 50 students per class, and the rooms are really congested. That’s why some students are seated on the floor. And the bleachers were also used as class rooms. Books also have torn pages.
Hogier Villarias, father of a Grade 8 student in Ramon Magsaysay High School
In Ramon Magsaysay, there are many problems because there is no electricity, which means there’s no electric fan. We wanted to donate fans, but the principal refused, because the electricity bill will be charged to them. There are also insufficient books, and the books are really old.
Cecil Begornia, 33, mother of a grade 4 student in Project 6 Elementary School
The issue of K to 12 is a burden for the parents because in our meeting in school with the adviser, they told us there are papers that we need to photocopy. So, instead of the government providing books, they will give us materials that we have to photocopy.
Ram Hernandez, 27, protester at Mendiola
K to 12 is an economic burden to the parents. It will only create semi-skilled workers and the number of underemployed workers will increase.
