Aguilar says budgetary constraints have hampered the city’s efforts to keep up with the burgeoning student population, and Dr. Lorna Madrid, DepEd NCR Planning Unit chief, confirms this. For sure, the budget for the elementary level in Las Piñas has generally increased through the years. This has been far outpaced, however, by the rise in the number of school-age children in the city.

Table 2: Pupil-Teacher Ratio and Pupil-Room Ratio for NCR’s Elementary Level by Division (SY 2007-2008) Source: Research and Statistics Division, Department of Education CITY/MUNICIPALITY PUPIL-TEACHER RATIO COLOR CODE PUPIL-ROOM RATIO COLOR CODE Caloocan City 46.79 Orange 109.12 Red Las Piñas City 50.54 Red 122.76 Red Makati City 33.93 Green 58.45 Red Malabon and Navotas 41.97 Gold 86.57 Red Mandaluyong City 37.53 Yellow 52.41 Gold Manila 27.61 Sky Blue 64.75 Red Marikina City 41.41 Gold 81.13 Red Muntinlupa City 48.74 Orange 81.81 Red Parañaque City 45.90 Orange 94.32 Red Pasay City 32.74 Green 61.22 Red Pasig and San Juan 45.14 Orange 49.76 Yellow Quezon City 45.74 Orange 101.49 Red Taguig and Pateros 47.73 Orange 99.40 Red Valenzuela City 46.52 Orange 89.37 Red Color Code: Teacher Deployment Analysis Blue, excessive surplus teacher provision (less than 25) Sky Blue, surplus teacher supervision (25.00 – 29.99) Green, generous teacher supervision (30.00 – 34.99) Yellow, national mean ratio (35.00 – 39.99) Gold, manageable ratio (40.00 – 44.99); Orange, moderate teacher shortage (45.00 – 49.99) Red, severe teacher shortage (more than 50.00) Black, no nationally funded teachers (no teachers available) Instructional Room Analysis Blue, meets R.A. 7880 with one shift (less than 46) Yellow, fails to meet R.A. 7880 with one shift (46.00 – 50.99) Gold, does not meet R.A. 7880 with double shifting (51.00 – 55.99) Red, does not meet R.A. 7880, schools with severe shortage of classrooms (more than 56) Black, no existing instructional rooms (no classrooms available)

There also seems to be a disparity in financing elementary schools in the region. The latest data from DepEd and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) show that while the national government spends P3,761.81 per pupil in Las Piñas, it allots P8,327.76 for each student in Manila.

Ironically, this is because Manila has more teachers, and is in fact categorized by DepEd as having “surplus teacher supervision,” with a teacher handling between 25 to 30 students. More teachers simply mean more money spent on salaries from the national budget, therefore making Manila’s budget per pupil bigger than that of Las Piñas and other places that lack teachers.

Madrid says that the lack in budget has made these areas make do with what they have. She also says, “We don’t just sit here and wait. We tap other sources.”

The private sector is among those sources. So, too, is the Special Education Fund (SEF), which is collected from the additional one percent tax on real property and is allotted by the Local Government Code to the local school boards.

PUPILS PER CLASS
Cramped classrooms may be partly to blame for this. Pamplona Elementary School-Central teacher Amelia Ordoñez says that 10 years ago, she used to handle classes of 40 pupils each. Now it’s up to 66 students per class.

“It’s hard to mold discipline among the pupils if they are too many,” says Ordoñez, who has been teaching for more than three decades now. “It’s also difficult to follow up on them or a do a lesson summary per day because time is very limited.”

She says that in her school, at least five percent of the student population comes from outside Las Piñas.The latest DepEd data indicate that Pamplona Elementary School-Central has a total enrolment of 3,050 with only 17 instructional rooms. An average of 179.41 pupils share one room each day, the highest number posted among Las Piñas’s 20 public elementary schools.

The classroom shortage has led the school to take some drastic measures. For instance, Ordoñez says, students in Grade 1 — save for those in the first section — have been divided into three shifts of four hours each; all shifts have a 10-minute break. Educators say the daily time allotment for learning at Grade 1 level is 320 minutes, or more than five hours.

Comments former education undersecretary Juan Miguel Luz: “If students don’t learn because they have less time in class, that is the crux of the low achievement problem.”

BIG ITEM: TEACHERS' PAY
Here in Las Piñas, close to 50 percent of the SEF has been spent on “personal services” or teachers’ salaries for the past several years. The latest data show that it is the source of the salaries of 173 locally funded teachers and 193 non-teaching personnel for both elementary and secondary public schools in the city.

For 2008, more than P91 million of the SEF is allocated for personal services, which comprise salaries and wages, allowances, benefits, and financial assistance. This leaves around P40 million for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) and P17.8 million for capital outlay.

MOOE includes recurrent expenses for travel, communication services, repair and maintenance of government facilities, supplies, materials, desks, rent, water and electricity, maintenance of motor vehicles, and discretionary representation expenses.

Capital outlay, meanwhile, refers to the budget for the acquisition and improvement of sites, including the construction, replacement, and repair of buildings, classrooms, libraries, toilets and other structures, furniture, fixtures, and equipment such as desks and chairs, computers, and books.

AUDIT QUERIES
The Commission on Audit (COA) has found problems with the Las Piñas school board’s appropriation of a large part of the SEF for personal services, even if the law does not consider these a priority.

The Local Government Code of 1991 (Republic Act 7160) says in part that the annual school board budget shall give priority to the construction, repair, and maintenance of school buildings and other facilities of public elementary and secondary schools; establishment and maintenance of extension classes where necessary; and sports activities.

But Rolando Acosta, bureau director at the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), says that the “establishment and maintenance of extension classes” may “correspond” to the hiring of local teachers. He hints that this only makes sense in areas where there is a shortage of teachers, asking, “How can you operate a school without teachers?”

BEE chief Quijano, for her part, says, “We know that the local government units are really using their SEF for education. What we just want to do is focus on the needs. If they lack teachers, (the) money must be really spent on hiring locally paid teachers.”

Indeed, for all of Las Piñas’s school troubles, DepEd’s Victoriano and Madrid are positive the city could still achieve universal primary education by 2015.

Dean Talisayon also says that reaching the goal in seven years is possible for Las Piñas. But she adds that it is also crucial to keep an eye on the quality of education in the city.

Talisayon notes that elementary education is important because this is where “skills, attitude, basic concepts, values” are developed. “And knowledge is cumulative,” she says. “If the foundation is very weak, then it would be difficult to catch up.”

“It’s a form of social injustice,” says Talisayon, “if students don’t get the education they deserve.”