Rooms not ready: Half-day classes in Cebu to adjust to senior high

CEBU, Philippines – With only one-third of senior high school (SHS) classrooms finished in time for school opening, the Cebu division of the Department of Education (DepEd) considers accommodating double shifts in junior high school classrooms to accommodate senior high classes.

DepEd starts implementing in June the senior high school program, brought about by the K to 12 law.

So far, 371 classrooms out of the targeted 1,038 for SHS in Cebu have been completed, according to the education department. 

Isaiah Wagas, SHS coordinator of DepEd Cebu Division, said that schools are instructed to conduct double shifts for junior high to establish a regular class schedule for senior high school classes.

Junior high will have half-day classes to free up more classrooms for senior high students.

DepEd had targeted to build 1,038 classrooms to accommodate 35,439 expected enrollees in Grade 11. One classroom can accommodate 40 to 55 students. 

Juby Corbon, assistant director of the Department of Public Works and Highways Region VII said that there are a lot of factors that delayed the completion of the classrooms.

“We hoped to comply with the target before the start of the school year, but we didn’t foresee the major problems we would encounter, like the non-availability or the lack of validation of the sites,” she said.

“There were also a lot of cases where trees would have to be cut, and for that we need permits from the Department of Environmental and National Resources. Consequently, we had to put some projects on hold,” Corbon said. 

The assistant director added that there the department also lacks skilled construction laborers because most are employed in private firms. 

“Also, it’s not only the school buildings that we’re doing. We have a lot of other projects, such as with the Department of Health…. We are very much loaded. But we keep the school buildings a priority, especially for the senior high school,” said Corbon. 

According to Corbon, the completion dates of the projects vary as they were constructed by batch. There were different requirements for the projects too, as some are single-story structures while others are multi-story buildings.

She said it takes one and a half months to finish one classroom for single-story buildings; multi-story buildings would take longer. The construction of the earliest batch started in mid-2015. 

Corbon told Rappler that the department plans to finish all projects in the next two weeks at the earliest, or by August at the latest. 

The division of Cebu has 233 public schools offering senior high school. Around 90 out of 105 private schools have been approved to offer senior high. Other private schools are still awaiting DepEd’s approval.  

The division covers 44 municipalities, excluding the cities in the province which are under separate divisions. – Rappler.com 

 Richale Cabauatan is a Rappler intern in Cebu City.