Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte on Wednesday pledged to continue supporting 10 public high schools in the city that have extended their blended learning modality despite the full r sumption of face-to-face classes.
“The city government fully backs the resumption of face-to-face classes, but we all know that there is still a problem that needs to be resolved. Because of such, we are closely coordinating with the Schools Division Office to know what could be done to help the schools, particularly the 10 high schools that extended the blended learning,” Belmonte said.
Based on the report of the city’s Schools Division Office, the 10 schools could not implement the full face-to-face classes due to various factors, notably classrooms and teachers shortage, prompting it to ask the Department of Education-National Capital Region to extend blended learning modality in select schools, namely, the Justice Cecilia Munoz Palma, Bagong Silangan, Batasan Hills, Balara, San Bartolome, Novaliches, Dona Rosario, Ismael Mathay Sr., New Era and Emilio Jacinto.
The city’s Education Affairs Unit cited the temporary classroom shortage in Ismael Mathay Sr. High School basically due to the yellow-tagged rooms that were subject to minor repairs based on the City Engineering Department’s post-earthquake assessment. The city government also cited ongoing constructions of a new school in Barangay Bagong Silangan and an eight-story school building with 52 classrooms in Barangay Bagbag.
Two new school buildings in Barangay Sta. Monica would is expected to be operational sometime next year to help ease the classroom needs of the Novaliches High School.
The city would be allocating funds for the construction of an additional building in Justice Cecilia Munoz Palma High School, as well as the rehabilitation of buildings in San Bartolome High School, Batasan Hills National High School and Dona Rosario High School.
Meanwhile, the New Era High School is considering sharing classrooms with a nearby public elementary school.
For schools with no available lots for new buildings such as the Balara High School, the city government is looking at options to address the classroom shortage problem by identifying alternative sites, including city-owned buildings nearby, or building additional floors if permitted by the existing structures without losing sight of the safety factors.
On the other hand, the Emilio Jacinto National High School is currently looking for 26 more teachers to proceed with the face-to-face classes, being one of the newly established schools in the city.
The city government sustains its distribution of tablets and laptops with internet allowance for students and teachers, regardless of the learning modality they are using.
“We continue to lend tablets to the children, whether it is blended learning or face-to-face classes so that we can help them in their studies. We are exhausting all measures for the conduct of the face-to-face classes as soon as possible,” Belmonte said.
She said to be able to efficiently address the classroom shortage in the long term, the city will create a task force that would oversee the infrastructure needs of school children in coordination with various national government agencies.
