By Dominic I. Sanchez
ZAMBOANGA CITY – Education for the hundreds of children affected by last year’s siege has regained a sense of normalcy two months after the opening of classes last June, as the Department of Education (DepEd) and humanitarian agencies have appropriated classrooms and provided interventions for this purpose.
In a report, Acting City Schools Superintendent Pedro Natividad shared, “the pupils coming from displaced families are now attending classes in temporary school sites and in composite schools in the transitory sites.”
Hundreds of schoolchildren were displaced last year, and now they are attending school in Baliwasan Central School and in the Zamboanga East and West Central Schools, and in Taluksangay and Tulungatung transit sites. Classes have also resumed in Rio Hondo and Talon-Talon elementary schools.
In addition to the existing classrooms, Natividad bared that 13 makeshift rooms and temporary learning spaces (TLS) were provided by UNICEF and the Tzu Chi Foundation. “More help for the students came from various civil society groups and non-government organizations in the form of feeding programs, child protection and counseling, provision of school kits and teachers’ kits, WASH facilities and water supply,” he added.
Teachers for Taluksangay and Tulungatung were already appropriated with daily traveling expenses, considering that the areas are far from the original campuses that were destroyed during the siege.
Meanwhile, some teachers are worried over the presence of several IDP families in the campuses, particularly in the Zamboanga West Central School. They noted that some adults are smoking inside the campuses. Moreover, IDPs dispose of garbage and waste improperly, and water pipes were destroyed.
Electric bills remain unsettled particularly in Talon-Talon, now amounting to over a hundred thousand pesos.
The DepEd has already sought the assistance of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the local government and other agencies to help resolve the problems confronting the schools and pupils.