Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista will lead the repair and clean-up operations in all QC public schools next week in preparation for the opening of classes on June 6.
In line with the “Brigada Eskwela” program of the Department of Education (DepEd), the Mayor wants all pre-school classrooms repaired and renovated before June 6 to ensure that all kindergarten pupils will have the necessary facilities on the opening day of the new school year.
With 96 elementary and 45 secondary schools, QC has the biggest number of public school students compared to other cities and municipalities in the country, and also remains to be the leading student-teacher friendly local government unit.
The city’s teaching and non-teaching personnel are also the best-paid educators in the country receiving, aside from their monthly salaries, supplemental allowance, longevity pay, quarterly rice subsidy amounting to P1,500, good governance incentives, Pamaskong Handog and service rewards.
Recently, Bautista granted P500 across the board salary increase to the city’s non-teaching personnel in addition to their take-home pay and benefits. The salaries of contractual teachers were increased last year to make it at par with the national-paid teachers.
Also, the Quezon City Government on orders of Mayor Bautista has set aside some Php140 million to purchase textbooks and other supplemental materials for all core subject areas to meet an envisioned 1:1 textbook-student ratio.
With the current DepEd ruling for a mandatory integration of pre-school children to elementary students starting this school year, Bautista has purchased kiddie chairs, tables and instructional materials to give the pre-schoolers a comfortable space for learning.
The Quezon City School Board is expecting a volume of about 30,000 pre-school children as classes start this June and has plans to hire an additional 54 pre-school teachers to meet a 1:30 teacher-pupil ratio.
The Bautista Administration also provides a feeding program for severely malnourished public school children. -30- Rico/ Maureen Quinones, PAISO
