Schools in EV to comply decors removal order

No punishment for non-compliant though

TACLOBAN CITY– All schools in the region will comply with the directive of Education Secretary and Vice President Sara Duterte to remove decorations inside the classrooms.
But those who will not follow on this directive of Duterte will not be punished, thus said Eden Dadap, project development officer IV of the Department of Education (DepEd) in Eastern Visayas.

Earlier, Duterte has issued a directive to all school officials to remove all decorations saying they were just ‘destructions’ to students and this would ensure ‘cleanliness’ in inside the classrooms.

Dadap said that a team from their regional office will conduct their monitoring to check if all schools across the region will follow on the directive of Duterte.

“All destructions are to be removed (even the photos) of the President and the Vice President. Only the (photos) of heroes and other learning materials will be allowed,” she said on Friday.

“This is mandatory because this is a marching order from the Secretary,” she added.
But those who will not comply will not be punished as the directive does not impose any penalty, Dadap stressed.

“Every time we institute reforms, there is always resistance especially if they are not informed. But generally, it received approval from the public,” she said.

“(But) it is not a penal law. There is no violation but as much as possible, we work hard and we encourage all our divisions to monitor on this,” Dadap said.

Dadap also clarified that the directive of Duterte does not cover private schools saying they have their own rules.

“Private schools have even their autonomy as to when they would like to start their classes. But they know the DepEd mandate and if they will follow, that is their prerogative,” she said.

Meantime, Dadap said that during the conduct of the national school maintenance or Brigada Eskwela in the region, they were so far able to generate over P53 million out of the materials or kinds donated such as paints and cleaning materials.

She said that the amount only involved the more than 1,000 public schools that reported to their regional office. The region has 4,189 elementary and secondary schools.

Dadap said that if all schools would submit their report, they expect over P200 million of donations during the conduct of Brigada Eskwela which was held from August 14 to 19.

JOEY A. GABIETA