Dilapidated, overcrowded public schools in the Philippines
By Dante Pastrana
20 June 2014
Public schools across the Philippines began a new school year this month. An estimated 21 million children are enrolled in a public school system that, after decades of deliberate starving of funds by successive governments, is nothing less than atrocious.
Newspapers reported that in Metro Manila 82 percent of the 764 public schools in the metropolis were congested, and were conducting classes in two shifts. The first shift starts as early as 6 a.m. and the second ends as late as six in the evening. There were reported to be as many as 80 students in each classroom. School authorities resorted to cutting classes in half and cramming the excess students into “science labs, libraries, corridors and even the principal’s office.”
In Tacloban city, devastated last November by Typhoon Haiyan, a local newspaper reported that in one school, hundreds of children endured the searing heat, reaching 30 degrees Celsius, in three temporary classrooms with walls of corrugated iron sheets.
“It is pitiful to see them packed like sardines,” the Sun Daily quoted Gina Villamor, who was waiting for her two children, aged 6 and 10.
Typhoon Haiyan damaged 3,100 schools, with 20,000 classrooms needing to be either rebuilt or repaired. An estimated 1.4 million children are affected. Seven months after the typhoon, however, only 35 percent of classrooms, that were totally damaged, and 53 percent of those that were partially damaged, have been rebuilt. Nearly half a million children are holding classes in over 4,000 so-called “learning spaces”—tents or sheds made of corrugated metal and wood.
In Davao city, 16,000 students are expected to attend two public elementary schools and one secondary school. The schools are conducting classes in shifts. Local education officials admitted a shortage of over 1,000