Teachers convert homes to schools Maricar Cinco Inquirer Southern Luzon
October 19, 2009
BIÑAN, LAGUNA—With classrooms crowded with evacuees and the school grounds still flooded, where could the students go?
A report from the Department of Education in Laguna province on Friday said 51 elementary and high schools were still being used as evacuation centers for typhoon-stricken families, but said all had already resumed classes.
In Biñan town, teachers found a solution to the deluge that was seen to last three to four more months. They volunteered to open their own homes to accommodate the students and resume classes on Oct. 12, two weeks after Tropical Storm “Ondoy” left the town and several others flooded.
“If we don’t do this, we might still be holding classes until April or May,” said Nora Fajilagot, officer-in-charge of the Malaban Elementary School.
The school, with the biggest population of pupils in Laguna numbering 4,000, was turned into one of the main evacuation centers, which houses about 800 families.
Home study
Three teachers, who are also neighbors at Gintong Silahis, the street next to where the school is and where the flood has receded, divided the pupils among themselves.
Makeshift tents were put up in the garage and backyard of teacher Emma Alzona.
A number of benches they were able to save from the deluge were brought there.
“They should just bear the congestion,” Alzona said of the 700 pupils assigned to her place.
But in the garage of teacher Lina Casano, the pupils were asked to bring empty sacks of rice to sit on. About 500 were assigned to her.
In the home of teacher Paraluman Alatiit, another 500 pupils have been accommodated.
Alzona said her house already had a broken faucet in the first week of the new classroom setup, while Casano said her door screen was already torn.
“But we just couldn’t avoid those (accidents). They’re kids,” Casano said.
During class hours, she would ask her 80-year-old mother to stay inside the room to avoid the children’s noise.
“Just be patient. Anyway, they also try to understand the situation,” the teachers told their families.
Classes for Grades 1 to 3 are held on Mondays and Tuesdays, and those for Grades 4 to 6, during the remaining weekdays.
The teachers take turns in jandling only the major subjects at this time.
“Let’s say the subject is English. We teach them all at the same time. One teacher gives the lecture, while the other teachers stand at the back to make sure everybody is listening,” Fajilagot said.
Each student is given a leaf of pad paper to use for the whole day. The teachers said all their books were drenched in the flood.
Joyce Cequieña, a Grade 6 pupil, said she and her classmates were not given assignments yet. She said she could not do them anyway in a situation as such.
“She comes home during lunch time to eat,” her mother Jocelyn said. But the home she actually referred to was the evacuation center at the Malaban Elementary School where they have been staying for nearly a month now.
Carlo Villanueva, a high school student whose family is also staying at the evacuation site, said he had not gone to school yet as he needed to help his parents secure their things left at their flooded home.
“Try telling that to my face and I just might slap him. Then they’ll look for quality education and complain about the kids not being competitive?” Casano said of a senator who earlier proposed an across-the-board passing mark for the typhoon-hit students.
The teachers said the situation was so difficult for them that “it sometimes makes us want to retire,” however, it gives them no reason to stop teaching, said Fajilagot.
Classes here are held from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., but when it rains hard, the teachers have no choice but to dismiss the classes earlier.
Dropouts, transferees
“People and children here have developed trauma. I myself get scared. Whenever it rains, I would wake my husband up even at 2:30 a.m. to check if the water is rising again,” said Fajilagot.
Malaban is situated along the shore of Laguna lake.
Fajilagot said about 150 pupils had already dropped out of school or moved out of Biñan or outside Laguna with their families.
Several others have not come to class yet.
At the Nereo Joaquin High School, also in Biñan, principal Emilita Esguerra said classes resumed on Oct. 5. At least 100 families are still staying on the second and third floors of the building.
Nereo Joaquin and Jacobo National High Schools in Biñan reported that about one percent of the student population had already transferred to other schools outside Laguna.
