At random

It’s back to classroom again for some 27 million pupils and students in elementary and high schools all over the country. As in the years past, the same old problems marked the first day in school.

From the usual lack of books to congested classrooms to shortage of teachers for public schools in far-flung areas, the Department of Education (DepEd) through the years have tried to address them. This does not include the usual problems outside the schools, in particular traffic gridlocks and criminals along roads going to schools.

The back-to-school does not include about four million students in state-run and private colleges and universities who are also returning to their classes, though on different dates, the latest of which will start classes in August yet.

This week’s Kapihan sa Manila Bay tackled the usual school opening blues with the opening of classes for school year 2018-2019 that started last Monday. We invited as featured guests DepEd Undersecretary Jesus Mateo, Alliance from Concerned Teachers (ACT) party list Rep. Antonio Tinio, and Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar who was recently appointed head of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

Speaking for the DepEd, Undersecretary Mateo credited the annual Brigada Eskwela for the generally smooth first day of classes for both teachers and pupils and students in all public schools. The Brigada Eskwela is the yearly cleanup campaign one week before classes resumed in all public elementary and high schools all over the country.

Being a career official who rose through the ranks during the 29 years he has been working at the DepEd, Mateo noted the shortage of classrooms and teacher-to-student ratio have remarkably become much less intense than decades back. This is because, he pointed out, of the higher fund allocations that now stands at P40 billion that the education sector gets from the national budget each year. As for the teachers’ salaries and allowances, the DepEd official pointed to the annual provision of pay increase for the teaching personnel under the Salary Standardization Law (SSL). The third and last tranche of SSL-3 takes effect in 2019 yet.

Contrary to the nice picture being presented by the DepEd, Tinio echoed disappointment that the same old problems remain. Tinio rued there are about 3.6 million Filipinos from ages 6 to 20 who are considered out-of-school youth (OSY), or those who ought to be in school but could not do so for lack of capability and access to school.

A member of the minority bloc in the 17th Congress, Tinio alleged that the employment of teachers in the private schools are not equally protected by DepEd from “endo,” or end of contract job scheme. Tinio noted with concern the 12,800 privately run educational institutions do not give the same pay scale enjoyed by their counterpart teachers in the public elementary and high schools.

For his part, Gen. Eleazar renewed his proposal to DepEd to implement random inspection of school bags and locker rooms in schools as part of the drug prevention campaign. Eleazar implemented this campaign while he was Quezon City Police Department (QCPD) chief as the most effective means to prevent youths from becoming victims of illegal drugs trade.

These illegal drugs syndicates, Eleazar laments, takes advantage of our youngsters using them as their couriers since they are beyond the arms of the law. He was obviously referring to Republic Act (RA) 9344, or the Juvenile Justice Act of 2006, which, among other things, mandate that children below 15 years old who get in conflict with the law are not sent to jail but must undergo social welfare intervention and rehabilitation.

RA 9344 was amended in 2013 by RA 10630 where a provision allows children as young as 12 years old to be detained for serious crimes such as rape, murder, and homicide, among others. It also mandated local government units (LGUs) to manage their own Bahay Pag-Asa (Houses of Hope) as rehabilitation centers for wayward youngsters.

But still, President Rodrigo Duterte and pro-administration lawmakers in the 17th Congress, have been pushing to amend RA 9344, specifically to lower the age of criminal responsibility from the current 15 years old to as young as nine years old. The former Davao City Mayor continues to carry the same advocacy he took during the May 2016 presidential campaign.

While Eleazar was QCPD chief, he recalled receiving information from a public school teacher about his having caught in a random inspection of bags one of their Grade 6 pupils in possession of marijuana leaves and shabu wrapped in several plastic bags. Without naming the school, Eleazar said he quietly sent QCPD anti-drug operatives to trace the source of the illegal drugs. Because of their discreet investigation, he cited, they were able to haul in the drug dealers and suppliers preying upon schoolchildren.

“Our primary concern is to help and protect them (students from the ills of illegal drugs),” the NCRPO chief stressed.

From their experience in Quezon City, the random inspection inside school premises proved effective in making the “drug-free” environment with the help and cooperation of Parents-Teachers Associations (PTA). Seeing the effectiveness of this drug prevention campaign, Eleazar said the Quezon City government passed a local ordinance to make this mandatory in all schools.

Gen. Eleazar urged DepEd to replicate this at the national level in all schools to reduce the drug addiction problem in our country, especially among Filipino youths who fall prey to illegal drugs use. Education Secretary Leonor Briones earlier disclosed she has allowed the conduct of random drug testing of students and faculty members in both public and private schools. Briones declined to go into details due to the confidentiality of the program.

Eleazar clarified though students who will test positive during random inspection will not be liable criminally. He assured the public those caught with illegal drugs “will not become outcasts” but would be freed from the clutches of addiction.