Playing with Fire
School opening woes
By Gonzalo Duque
THERE was not much trouble as earlier feared on the implementation of the Kindergarten Program at the opening of classes last week.
Many were expecting much trouble as usually is the case in trying new ideas and new systems. Well, that’s fine then, but expect trouble later, after the so-called honeymoon dies down.
The other side of the picture however showed severe classroom shortages, yes, overcrowding of classrooms. This problem, you see, will worsen as the days go by.
We really wonder if the DepEd did some serious homework on this. We hope the government will focus its energies here.
We have not even touched the lack of teachers to handle the kindergarten schools. Is the government prepared to meet this?
We have our doubts. But we are not one who just deplores problems. We try to look for a way out, we look for solutions. It is with this frame of mind that we revive the idea of harnessing of our nurses, thousands of whom are jobless and gallivanting all over the land.
They may lack the teaching methodology, but it’s all right because the main menu in their job description would consist of childcare which they have mastered in the nursing course. Alalahanin natin na there is absolutely no need for the thousands of nurses to work in hospitals. There’s an over supply of nurses. Kawawa sila, they have joined the ranks of unemployed and unemployable.
And so as a matter of pragmatic approach, the kindergarten schools that have invaded our educational system is the best job challenge for our nurses.
One of the major concerns that will surely stare our public schools in the face is the undernourished children. Matindi ya agagui. There should be an “all systems” attack on this problem. As you well know, poverty still stalks the land, and we have yet this government who could not mount a real, authentic, creative, doable development plan to lick poverty, and here we are neck deep in the ocean of kindergarten children crying for attention and care.
We sincerely hope our President will be able to see his way through this maze. Nakakahilo, and we need everybody’s support and cooperation. We have no choice but to help lift a hand. Otherwise, paktaylo!
In one of our last consultative meetings in San Fernando, La Union, we voiced this nurses as teachers’ suggestion. May mga tumatango, may ngumingiti, may nakasimangot, may manggugogoy ulo. So we don’t know if we hit home. Para silang naging Confucius.
But we were and we are serious. Mantakin nyo, in one fell swoop ma solved natin ang unemployed nurses and yet the kids in our kinder schools would get the best childcare! Genius move, di ba? Dapat decorahan tayo ng medalya awa Jun V?
By the way, the idea is not orig. Max Soliven’s wife, kindergarten school proprietress Preciosa has already implemented it, this idea of nurses manning kinder schools. She has produced super brilliant children! Lea Salonga was her product.
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If Board Member Ranjit Shahani was not denouncing PSU president Estira, he was training his guns on fears the San Roque project may not be equal to the job.
Mankigtot si Tom Valdez, vice president of the San Roque Development Project. Yon pala, tama lang si Ranjit who raised the need for massive dredging and desiltation of the Agno River in order to prevent flooding.
Ranjit must still be haunted by the last Pepeng typhoon that caused nightmarish floods in Pangasinan. Good and timely point there, Ranjit.
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