Zambo Sur town deals with crumbling school
PAGADIAN CITY—A visit by top government officials to the remote school in Pisompongan, Midsalip town in Zamboanga del Sur, revealed what pupils and teachers have been experiencing all school year: Holding classes in dilapidated classrooms, with decaying roofs about to fall; and other problems hounding most public schools.
Social Welfare and Development Secretary Rex Gatchalian visited communities in the geographically isolated and disadvantaged area of Midsalip town on Aug. 13 upon the instruction of President Marcos to check on schools located near rivers so that additional bridges would be installed for the safety of learners.
But Gatchalian learned that aside from bridges, schools in the area also needed additional classrooms, among other concerns.
The concern over the safety of schoolchildren during floods first reached Malacañang when a video uploaded last month on social media by school head Gideon Goc-ong showed schoolchildren and teachers crossing a river amid strong currents and rising floodwaters brought about by heavy monsoon rains went viral on social media.
Goc-ong, principal of the Pisompongan Integrated School, said during Gatchalian’s visit they were overjoyed by the new projects that the national government was bringing to the community but some of their problems remained “unseen” and “unaddressed.”
Among these problems was the severe shortage of classrooms at his school, which catered not only to learners from Barangay Pisompongan but also from four other neighboring barangays in the area.
Goc-ong showed Gatchalian the dilapidated classrooms earlier declared by the Commission on Audit (COA) as “unsafe,” hence, already needed to be condemned for demolition.
“But because there was no budget for repair or construction, our children still use these classrooms,” he said. “We hope the walls don’t give in. We pray the roof doesn’t collapse … because that’s all we can do here: to hope and pray.”
Severe shortage
Moreover, he said, they expected a severe shortage of classrooms next school year when enrollment for both the junior high and senior high school would open, as their current spaces were already overcrowded.
“We may have to turn students away or put three, even four classes, in one room (if this problem would not be solved in the near future),” the principal said.
Even in existing classrooms, they also lacked basic furniture like chairs and tables for the students, and even proper chairs and desks for teachers, the school principal said.
“We don’t have a science laboratory nor an ICT room. We practically have no access to updated educational tools,” the school principal said. “We are encouraging children to dream big … without giving them the tools to reach those dreams,” Goc-ong added.
He also said their schoolteachers were not able to avail of the “special hardship allowance,” or hazard pay for schoolteachers.
“They cross rivers, climb mountains and walk long distances. They teach in damaged classrooms; yet many of them are not given their rightful special hardship allowance—even though they are clearly in hardship posts. How can we expect them to give their best when we don’t even give them the minimum (benefits that) they deserve?” he asked. “No child should swim to reach a classroom. No child should sit in a condemned room. No teacher in a hardship area should be forgotten and no school, no matter how remote, should feel invisible,” he added. INQ
The list
Goc-ong turned over the list of the school’s concerns – printed and placed in a folder – to Gatchalian, who promised to personally deliver it to Education Secretary Sonny Angara.
Gatchalian’s visit followed that of Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity Secretary Carlito Galvez Jr. on Aug. 1.
Galvez allocated P60 million from the Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan (Pamana ) program for a concrete bridge in the area; and an additional P30 million and P20 million for the bridges of two other rivers that the learners have to cross on their way to Barangay Pisompongan.
Gatchalian inspected the area where a P1.2 million foot bridge would be built under the agency’s Kapitbisig Laban sa Kahirapan (Kalahi) Comprehensive and Integrated Delivery of Social Services (CIDSS) program. He said the project’s cost did not reach P2-million since it would be a community-driven action where most of the work would be from the community itself.
“It is much cheaper and fast,” he said, adding that he expected the project to be completed by March or April next year.
Another two-classroom school building worth P4.2-million would also be built in the community under the KALAHI-CIDSS program next year.
Gatchalian said they were currently doing inventories of foot bridges and hanging bridges needed to be built in different parts of the country to make school children in remote communities safer on their way to school.
