DAVAO CITY,Philippines – The start of a new school year is usually filled with dreams from students of higher learning, until they enter the classroom.
Shania Aroso, a senior high student at Davao City National High School (DCNHS), finds it difficult to focus in her class due to the humid place and the noises inside the classroom stuffed with 60 students.
City High is the largest public school in Davao City, with more than 14,000 students. As its student population grows, its classrooms have not kept up.
Learning becomes more like surviving for the students.
“Kanang goot gyud kaayo among room kay tama tama lang niya 67 mi tanan kabook. Walay mga armchair ang ginagamit namo kay kanang monobloc” (It’s too crowded and the classroom is not enough for 67 students. We don’t have armchairs, and we only use monobloc chairs),” says Ashley Paquit, a Grade 11 STEM student.
Such discomforts in the classroom is not being finicky. Imagine students sitting on a monobloc, trying to write down notes about a mathematical formula or an intricate scientific idea, while enduring a poorly ventilated room crowded with people.
Sir Jed Bete, Head Teacher VI and School Information Officer of DCNHS, said some classrooms now accommodate more than 60 students per section.
The lack of classrooms has reached critical levels on the nationwide scale. The Education Commission (EdCom) reported that the Philippines needs at least 165,000 new classrooms to meet current student needs.
Yet out of 19,766 classrooms marked for repair, only 5,132 have been repaired so far. Furthermore, only 1,811 of the 5,496 classrooms destroyed by disasters have been repaired.
Schools are rushing to find methods to accommodate children because of this scarcity, including reducing class schedules.
But in DCNHS, Jete said that even their implementation of a morning and afternoon shifts to manage their large number of enrollees remains insufficient.
Teachers also get burdened by this, handling a load of four to five sections a day, in addition to managing the heavy responsibilities as the adviser. “It’s very challenging,” Bete shared.
It’s a cycle of checking papers, lesson planning, and class management with barely enough time in between.
The teachers want to give their best, but the facilities are simply lacking. Despite having a workforce of almost 500 teaching and non-teaching personnel, they are left to endure another school year with sacrifice and effort.
The DCNHS currently is constructing new facilities.
The crisis in Davao City National High School is also the same throughout public schools in Davao City. DepEd Davao Region spokesperson Jenielito “Dodong” Atillo said they were ready in anticipation of 1.3 million new students for the 2025–2026 academic year.
For Reynaldo Pardillo, President of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Davao chapter and a teacher at Santa Ana National High School, there is a growing gap between policy and reality: “DepEd guidelines suggest one teacher for every 25 elementary students and 45 in high school,” he said.
Policy is only one aspect of investing in education; another is making sure that plans result in tangible, long-lasting progress for each student, he added.
Padillo said while the teachers’ tenacity has always been recognized and praised in the past, real solutions are needed to address the lack of facilities and learning materials.
“We are hoping that we will have this so-called infrastructure program, amenities, and a program that will really help our learners. Not only for the learners, but also for the teachers. Yan talaga ang aming pangarap sa ating educational system. (That has been our hope for our educational system), “he added.
While infrastructure programs are ongoing in some schools like in DCNHS, the rest of the schools continue to face learning challenges, hoping not to be impeded by such limitations.
But for ACT, the issue still needs to be addressed head-on, as real solutions must replace quiet endurance.(davaotoday.com)
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