Effective ways to start a new school year
Today, some 28 million students and pupils and about five million teachers, support staff and school administrators all over the country are coming back to school, mostly the public schools. How shall the government organize and control the 33 million people who shall join some 35 million existing labor force who are also going to factories, offices, and places of work at the same time? They shall be passing through the same streets and highways. This will then be a major pandemonium that can escalate into chaos, if and when our education officials, traffic enforcers, police, and school administrators are unable to work together to manage this gargantuan challenge.
The first problem in the public school system is how to manage volume, space, density, and time all interplaying in a given area. For instance, how shall a school principal allocate room assignments given the exploding number of enrollees, the limited number of classrooms, insufficient desks, damaged toilets, and libraries. Well, if they did their "Brigada Eskwela'' well enough, such challenges should have been solved by now. An effective principal should be a proactive, resourceful anticipator of needs and a planner. A school administrator should have already figured this out long before today's opening of classes. So the more problems that shall arise in a public elementary or secondary school, the less effective the administrator is.
The start of a new school year should have been planned well enough many months before today. School administrators, assisted by the teachers, should have met among themselves, and then convened the parents-teachers association, coordinated with the barangay, tapped civic organizations, asked the help of the mayor and governor, and sought the support of the DepEd district supervisor, division superintendent, and regional director for major problems and needs. Today is execution time. The more flawless the flow of students into the campuses, the more smooth the interactions among teachers and students, the lesser snags along the way, these are the indicia of an excellent school management and administration.
The students and the pupils are ready with their bags, notebooks, and pens. The teachers should be ready with their whiteboards, pens, and erasers. But it is the responsibility of the principals, school supervisors, regional directors, and the DepEd to make sure every pupil has a desk and a classroom. It is the duty of the government to make sure the children and teachers are safe and have clean toilets and drinking fountains. It is the government's responsibility to provide all the facilities and the equipment for education to take place. After all, the citizens have paid billions in taxes to fund this national function.
To start a new school year effectively and flawlessly is a major test of how effective is DepEd in delivering. They cannot afford to compromise the future of the nation. Let us also help them succeed, for if they do succeed we shall have succeeded as well.
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