To ensure the orderly opening of pre-school classes in Quezon City on Monday, Mayor Herbert Bautista will inspect today some of the newly-refurbished kindergarten classrooms in Barangays Payatas and Commonwealth.
Included in the inspection are the kindergarten rooms at the Lupang Pangako Elementary School in Barangay Payatas and the Sen. Benigno Aquino Sr. Elementary School along Commonwealth Avenue, both located in District II, which has the biggest concentration of the city’s urban poor communities.
To date, the city government has already completed 60 to 70 percent of the repair and renovation works on the kindergarten classrooms that will be utilized by an estimated 30,000 schoolchildren in QC’s pre-school program for this new school year.
At least 33 elementary schools have been identified by the division of city schools as priority areas that need to be repaired and improved for kindergarten classes. Of the total, schools located in District II have most of the repaired kindergarten rooms.
Priority schools in District II include GSIS Village Elementary School, New Era Elementary School, L.R. Pascual Elementary School, Doña Rosario Elementary School, Rosa Susano Elementary School, President Corazon Aquino Elementary School, Sen. Benigno Aquino Elementary School, Doña Juana Elementary School, Fairview Elementary School, Lupang Pangako Elementary School, Manuel L. Quezon Elementary School, Payatas C Elementary School, Damong Maliit Elementary School, Pasong Tamo Elementary School and Commonwealth Elementary School.
The city government has set aside P40 million for the operationalization of kinder classrooms in QC, which will also include construction of kinder comfort rooms, hiring of additional pre-school teachers, procurement of instructional materials and school furniture and fixtures.
The Mayor ordered the city engineering department to make sure to follow the standard of the Department of Education in terms of comfort room construction.
Under the K+12 curriculum, enrollment in kindergarten is now mandatory.
Meanwhile, the city government has also completed construction of three additional school buildings that will provide more classrooms for students enrolled in the Old Balara Elementary School – Villa Beatriz, Bagong Pag-asa Elementary School and the National Orthopedic Hospital (NOH) School for the Crippled Children.
Construction of two additional school building projects at Payatas C Elementary School and Maligaya Elementary School is also on-going.
While QC hosts the biggest public school system in the National Capital Region with more than 400,000 enrollees, including pre-school, division of city school superintendent Dr. Corazon Rubio assured parents that QC will have enough classrooms when classes open next week.
Rubio said the division was able to achieve the ideal student-classroom ratio of 1:45 in Districts I, III and IV while efforts have been exerted to ensure that classes shall be maintained at a minimum of two shifts in District II, which accounts for the bulk of the city’s enrolment.
Meanwhile, Rubio said, QC’s enrolment figure this schoolyear will only grow by two percent as a result of the on-going relocation program implemented by the city government for informal settler families.
Also forming part of the city’s preparation for the June 6 school opening is the inspection of the canteens of the different public and private schools to check their compliance with sanitation requirements.
Included in the city’s monitoring are sari-sari stores and other non-food establishments within 100 meters from school perimeters for compliance with RA 9211 which prohibits the selling of cigarettes.
Other food establishments will also be monitored for food safety.
To date, QC has about 95 public elementary and 46 high schools and about 276 private elementary and 378 high schools. -30- Precy/ Ej/ Maureen Quinones, PAISO
