Public School Opening for Kindergarten Pupils, A Man-made Disaster

 

An estimated 1.2 million five-year-old children will begin kindergarten, after the Department of Education (DepEd) directed that it should be offered in public schools for free.

 

DepEd is fully aware that the total classroom shortages for the incoming school year is around 150,000 classrooms.  We still have to hear how many classrooms will be ready by June 6.  For the 1.2 M new kindergarten pupils alone, at a ratio of 1:25/class on a desired single shift session,  a total of 48,000 new classrooms are needed.

 

In a hurry to implement a noble but impracticable Universal Kindergarten program this school year, our organization, ACT has warned the DepEd that it would be a futile exercise not withstanding the cost it entails.

 

Children, mostly from poor families, fall out due to poor health, severe nutritional deficiencies and serious learning gaps in their early years. Consequently, an estimated 4 million children are forced to leave the school system prematurely or do not enter it at all because they are simply not school-ready.

 

 “The real challenge is how to ensure our young children to be school-ready with quality inputs, adequate facilities suited to children’s needs and  a troop of well trained teachers,”  Ms. France Castro of ACT said.

 

“But please do not shortchange teachers. We denounce the plan to hire 10,000 teachers on contractual basis.  We deserve more than the P3000 salary per three-hour session as proposed by DepEd. It is simply against the law, Ms France Castro, added.”

 

Bro. Armin Luistro and PNoy should be reminded that there is a Magna Carta for Teachers. ACT will lead this fight for our democratic rights and for quality education. #