LINGAYEN – While many public schools in other provinces are suffering from a severe shortage of classrooms, Pangasinan’s public schools consider themselves more fortunate not to have that kind of problem.

In Pangasinan Division 1 (covering congressional districts one, two and three), Dr. Alberto Macob, education supervisor 2 and in charge of the information desk for the school opening, said  the obtaining ratio in the division is 1:50 teacher-pupil ratio in both public elementary and high schools.

He added that there are some 20 classrooms being constructed in different schools and some school heads were given P10,000 cash aid for the repair of their dilapidated buildings.

He said the series of conferences among school heads to discuss the shortage of classrooms, books and teachers prior to the schools’ opening helped them minimize the problems.

Last year, this division had 173,544 elementary pupils and 84,562 high school students. They expected about five to 10 percent increase this year.

Textbooks used last year will still be used this school year with more expected to arrive soon, he added.

In Pangasinan Division 2 (covering the fourth, fifth and sixth congressional districts), lawyer Armando Aquino, the schools division superintendent, the teacher-pupil ratio is 1:39.

The smaller size enabled schools to open smoothly and pointed out that that there is very minimal lack of classrooms  in his turf. Some schools lack only one classroom.

Enrollees continued to trickle in late last week and this was attributed mainly to financial reasons.

He had stressed in his meetings last week with school principals, supervisors,
head teachers that no one should be deprived of enrolment.

He said he advised the school heads to admit pupils or students who could not immediately pay school fees.

Aquino said the help extended by Governor Victor Agbayani and local mayors
plus the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry led by Board
Member Danilo Uy in their area provided the big relief in classroom shortage.

Last year, Division 2 registered about 135,000 elementary pupils and 82,000  in high schools. They expected about two percent increase this year.

Meanwhile, Superintendent Noli Taliño, the provincial police deputy police
director for operations, said that classes opened here very peacefully. – EVA

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