TACLOBAN CITY–The Department of Education (DepEd) here has reminded school heads and teachers to strictly implement the agency’s “no collection policy” as the new school term started Monday (June 4).
Jasmin Calzita, information officer of DepEd Eastern Visayas, said that aside from enforcing the DepEd Order 41 series of 2012 which covers the prohibition of collecting fees during enrolment and the start of classes, school officials are also urged to “make the opening of classes festive especially for our kindergarten.”
“We have made it a strong policy regarding the no collection policy,” she said.
Calzita said that those who will defy this order are to be given proper sanction as parents should report it to their office if they encounter such issue.
She also disclosed that during the opening of classes, Oplan Balik Eskwela-Public Assistance Command Center (OBE-PACC) were put into place to entertain issues and concerns.
Meanwhile, Edgar Tenasas, assistant schools division superintendent in Leyte, said that the province was already set for the new school year.
“Our school heads and teachers are doing their part to prepare their schools for the opening. In the municipality where I am assigned for the Brigada Eskwela monitoring, I witnessed the concerted efforts of the school personnel and the community in all of the elementary and secondary schools in Babatngon, Leyte,” said Tenasas.
Eastern Visayas, with its 13 school divisions, has 4, 161 public schools with 47, 334 teachers and 7, 485 non- teaching personnel. The region has a total of 301 private schools.
During its partnership roadshow last month, the region generated at least 38 memorandum of agreements and a total of P200,439,066 from various donors to fund its educational gaps like malnutrition, lack of non-teaching staff and Alternative Learning System faculty, lack of high school campuses in far-flung barangays, congested classrooms, high dropout rate, decreasing enrollment among elementary students, lack of school budget, low performance in the National Achievement Test, and lack of data-driven system to track performances of schools, among other school problems.(RONALD O. REYES)
