By Mary May A. Abellon
DIPOLOG
CITY — “All public schools in the city are ready for the opening
of classes on June 3,” Schools Division Superintendent Victorina G. Perez said over DXAA news program recently.
A
similar pronouncement was aired by George Balbosa, secretary to the
superintendent, confirming that classes in public schools would officially
start on Monday.
“The
implementation of Brigada Eskwela and the seminars given to teachers especially
those who will be handling K+12, made the public school ready for the classes
on Monday,” Balbosa declared.
It
can be recalled that all public schools in the city had conducted Brigada
Eskwela last May 20-24 in preparation for the opening of classes.
Brigada
Eskwela is a nationwide school preparation campaign spearheaded by the Department
of Education (DepED) with voluntary participation of teachers, parents,
students and other organizations in the repair of all school facilities and clean-up
drive to all classrooms and its surroundings.
In
Dipolog, the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Bureau of Fire and
Protection (BFP) have also extended their support to the said annual activity.
In
a related development, all provincial and district fire marshals were also
directed to support DepED’s “Oplan Balik Eskwela” campaign.
Members
of BFP will be checking all connection lines of electricity in schools,
dormitories and boarding houses to determine whether they really passed the safety compliance to
protect the students from any accident.
PNP-Dipolog, on the other
hand, through its Police Community Relations (PCR) division is also conducting
information drive against kidnapping and drug addiction.
The lady schools superintendent also informed the
parents and students that the DepED is now strictly implementing the “no
collection policy” and if there will be any voluntary contribution, it must be
paid to/collected by the Parents Teachers Association (PTCA) as stipulated
under DepED Order No. 41, series of 2012.
Finally, Perez said: “Parents should allow and
encourage their children to go to their classes even if they don’t have school
materials because the public schools have their Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses
(MOOE) allocation that can be utilized in the procurement of school
supplies like crayons, pencil, papers for the schoolchildren to use.” (PIA9)